^  JUL  8  -  1327 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORKS 


WORLD'S    GREATEST 
EVANGELIST 

DWIGHT  L  MOODY 

A  COMPLETE  AND  AUTHENTIC  REVIEW  OF  THE  MARVELOUS 

CAREER  OF  THE  MOST  REMARKABLE  RELIGIOUS 

GENERAL    IN    HISTORY 

BY 

REV.   J.   W.    HANSON,   A.M.,  D.  D. 

Author  of  "  Religions  of  the  World,"  "  Manna,"  "Cloud  of 
Witnesses."  and  other  religious  works. 


INTRODUCTION     BY 

REV.  H.  W.  THOMAS,  D.  D. 

The  Celebrated  Pastor  of  People's  Church,  Chicago. 


EULOGY  BY 

HON.  J.  V.  FAR  WELL 

The  Millionaire  Philanthropist  and  Co-Worker  of  Mr.  Moody. 


CHICAGO 

W.  B.  CONKEY  COMPANY 
1900 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1900 

By  ROBT.  O.  law, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


Publishers'  Preface. 


Spurgeon  was  called  the  pastoral  evangelist; 
Chalmers,  the  parish  evangelist;  Finney,  the 
revival  evangelist;  Howard,  the  prison  evan- 
gelist; Whitefield,  the  field  evangelist;  Shaftes- 
bury, the  philanthropic  evangelist;  Bliss,  the 
singing  evangelist;  McCaiiley,  the  evangelist 
of  the  outcast,  but  Dwight  L.  Moody  was 
the  evangelist  of  the  people. 

For  forty  years  his  name  was  known  among 
the  English  speaking  people.  For  nearly  forty 
years  his  sa3'ings  have  been  household  words; 
for  nearly  forty  3"ears  his  stories  have  been 
told  at  almost  ever}^  Christian  fireside.  His 
life,  with  its  peculiarly  fitting  ending,  is  known 
in  a  general  way  to  the  great  mnjority  of  the 
people,  but  few  of  them  realize  what  a  great 
man  he  was.  Born  in  New  England  poverty, 
but  with  an  indomitable  spirit,  he  made  his 
mark  as  a  boy  even  in  wise  old  Boston.  As 
a  young  man  in  Chicago,  he  demonstrated  his 
stability  in  commerce  as  well  as  in  religion. 
He  founded,  by  his  energy,  one  of  the  largest 
Sunday-schools  in  the  world  out  of  apparently 
the  poorest  material  to  be  found  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent. 

A  few  years  later,  he  electrified  Europe  with 
his   methods   and  thousands  of  people   turned 

6 


6  -PUBLISHERS'  PREFACE. 

from  ways  of  sin  to  ways  of  righteousness.  He 
came  home  and  founded  the  great  schools  at 
Northfield  where  thousands  of  young  men  and 
women  can  procure  an  education  at  a  nominal 
figure.  Thirty  buildings  stand  as  a  monument 
to  him  there.  In  Chicago,  the  great  Bible 
Institute,  with  its  auxiliary  features,  where 
thousands  of  young  men  and  women,  desirous 
of  greater  insight  into  the  Holy  Scriptures  daily 
assemble  and  listen  to  explanations  of  the 
Bible. 

The  present  work  was  commenced  early  in 
1898  and  is  the  result  of  months  of  careful 
research  and  many  interviews  with  personal 
friends  of  Mr.  Moody.  It  embodies  a  com- 
plete account  of  the  great  evangelist's  marvel- 
ous career  from  his  birth  to  his  death,  enliv- 
ened with  anecdotes  contributed  from  all  parts 
of  the  world.  The  labor  of  arranging,  select- 
ing and  condensing  the  vast  amount  of  material 
gathered  during  the  past  two  years,  was  very 
great  and  it  was  found  necessary  to  omit  a 
large  amount  of  very  interesting  and  valuable 
matter  in  order  to  keep  the  work  within  the 
lines  of  a  popular  life  of  Mr.  Mood}'.  Many  of 
the  illustrations  were  taken  specially  for  the 
work  by  our  own  photographer;  others  were 
redrawn  from  designs  furnished  our  special 
artist. 


INTROD  UCTION 

By  H.  W.  THOMAS,  D.  D., 
Pastor  of  People's  Church,  Chicago. 

D WIGHT  L.  MOODY  would  have  been  a 
marked  man  in  almost  any  field  of  active 
affairs,  and  simply  because  of  his  large 
natural  abilities.  That  he  was  great  as  an 
evangelist  was  owing  mainly  to  his  special 
adaptation  to  that  form  of  work ;  his  glad  and  en- 
tire consecration  to  it,  and  his  wonderful  power 
to  use  others,  to  marshal  and  control  forces 
to  inspire  minds  and  hearts  with  his  own  pur- 
pose and  earnestness. 

Brother  Moody  understood  well  the  power 
of  numbers,  of  large  assemblies,  and  the  value 
of  sympathetic  emotion.  Hence  he  did  not  go 
forth  alone  to  gather  and  reach  the  outside 
world,  as  did  Wesley;  but  sought  and  secured 
the  united  action  of  the  preachers,  the  mem- 
bers and  choirs  of  the  evangelical  churches,  and 
this  he  could  do  sincerely  because  he  saw 
nothing  vital  in  the  lines  that  differentiated  the 
denominations,  and  felt  that  their  coming  to- 
gether would  be  helpful  to  each;  that  the  com- 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

mon   life   of  all  would  be   quickened    and  en- 
larged. 

No  one,  perhaps,  has  done  so  much  to  lessen 
the  lines  of  separation,  and  so  much  to  unite  all 
in  the  great  law  and  life  of  love.  Had  he 
sought  to  found  a  new  denomination,  this  united 
action  would  not  have  been  possible,  for  the 
movemer^t  would  naturally  have  been  looked 
upon  as  competitive.  Brother  Moody  did  not 
wish  to  found  another  denomination;  he 
thought  there  were  too  many  already;  but  he 
did,  and  wisely,  too,  look  to  the  perpetuation  of 
his  own  spirit  and  work  in  one  central  church 
and  through  the  educational  power  of  training 
schools,  and  in  this  was  successful  through 
his  singular  ability  to  reach  men  of  large 
means,  and  to  bring  other  workers  into  the 
field. 

There  will  not  be  another  Moody;  as  there 
will  not  be  another  Beecher,  Simpson  or  Philips 
Brooks;  it  is  not  Nature's  God's  way  of  work- 
ing. Brother  Moody  filled  a  needed  place  in 
his  time;  other  minds  and  hearts  will  come  forth 
for  the  needs  of  new  conditions. 

We  all  loved  and  honored  Brother  Moody, 
and  pray  that  his  inspiration,  his  consecration, 
his  great  love  for  man  and  God,  may  be  caught 
up  and  carried  forward  to  bless  a  world. 

H.  W.  THOMAS. 


DWIGHT  L.  MOODY. 

By  JOHN  V.  FARWELL. 


I  never  felt  so  small  as  when  requested  to 
give  in  words,  as  an  observer  from  its  begin- 
ning until  his  translation,  some  sort  of  a  digest 
of  Dwight  L.  Moody's  character. 

While  lying  in  his  coffin  in  the  Northfield 
church,  that  gust  of  wind  that  opened  enough 
of  one  window  blind  to  let  in  the  light  of  the 
sun  on  his  kindly  face,  suggests  to  my  mind 
that  only  the  mind  of  God — the  only  source  of 
light  of  life — can  measure  a  mind  and  heart 
aflame  with  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty, 
from  whence  he  drew  his  power  for  dail}'  use 
in  his  work. 

Environment  and  want  of  education  under 
such  a  heavenly  ray  of  light,  was  no  obstruc- 
tion to  his  being  lifted  out  of  weakness  into  a 
power  sufficient  to  confound  the  mightiest 
men,  who  had  any  less  communion  with  God. 

Look  at  yonder  dirty  pool,  too  foul  for  use. 
We    expect  nothing  from  it  to  help  mankind. 

Look  again.  The  sun,  with  its  silent  chem- 
istry, has  in  due  time  drawn  it  up  into  heaven's 


10  DWIGHT  L.  MOODY. 

blue,  and  on  t'he  very  spot  where  it  cursed  the 
earth,  is  a  garden  of  flowers,  watered  by  its 
dew  drops,  and  in  the  heavens  above  is  God's 
rainbow  of  promise,  painted  by  its  mystery  of 
heavenly  art  while  on  its  way  to  earth,  to 
water  that  garden  of  the  beautiful,  and  fields 
plowed  and  planted  by  man,  that  the  earth  may- 
bring  forth  bread  for  the  hungry. 

The  natural  man  with  his  earthly  lusts  and 
passions  is  that  dirty  pool,  only  needing  the 
potentialities  of  heaven's  light  and  heat  to  trans- 
form its  stagnant  elements  into  the  beautiful 
and  useful. 

Mr.  Moody  was  thus  transformed  by  his  own 
deliberate  choice,  placing  himself  under  the 
hands  of  the  Almighty,  to  be  used  in  His 
vineyard. 

Thus  equipped,  his  works  were  well  done, 
and  it  may  be  well  said  of  him,  "Blessed  are 
the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord,  for  their  works 
do  follow  them." 

A  mighty  man  has  finished  his  work  on 
earth.  The  oldest  book  in  existence  records, 
"There  is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  inspiration 
of  the  Almighty  giveth  him  understanding." 
Moody's  spirit — or  mental  ability — was  natur- 
ally of  a  superior  order.  Had  he  taken  up 
politics  he  would  have  made  an  exceptional 
statesman.       Having  taken  up  with  Christ  as 


DWIGHT  L.  MOODY.  11 

Lord  for  his  life  work,  the  inspiration  of  the 
Almighty  gave  him  a  power  in  Christian  work 
second  to  no  one  in  the  apostolic  succession 
from  Saints  Peter  and  Paul  until  December 
22d  A.  D.,  1899,  measured  by  the  results  of 
his  ministry,  practically  surrounding  the  globe 
in    its    influence,  and  nearly  so  in  his  travels. 

The  key  to  the  understanding  of  all  this  is 
that  Moody's  body,  soul  and  spirit,  by  his  own 
deliberate  choice,  were  consecrated  to  that 
ministry.  He  once  heard  a  man  say,  "The 
world  has  yet  to  see  how  much  one  man, 
wholly  consecrated  to  God,  can  accomplish  in 
this  world  for  Him."  "Then,"  said  Moody, 
"I  will  be  that  man,  for  I  can  consecrate  my  all 
to  Him." 

He  began  his  work  as  a  mission  Sunday- 
school  drummer,  and  from  that  graduated  in 
regular  succession  into  Superintendent  of  one 
of  the  largest  mission  Sunday-schools  in  the 
city,  President  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  and  the  world's  exangelist,  the 
highest  office  in  Christ's  ministry. 

When  he  left  a  successful  business  for  this 
calling,  he  had  accumulated  about  $12,000,  all 
of  which  was  invested  in  mission  enterprises  at 
the  time  he  was  most  busy  with  the  work  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  A  little  prayer  meeting  of 
three  asked  for  wisdom  to  procure  a  building 


12  DWIGHT  L.  MOODY. 

for  that  association,  and  in  answer  Mr.  Moody 
began  and  finished  the  first  building  ever  erected 
for  the  use  of  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  on  earth,  represent- 
ing Christian  union,  and  in  his  work  in  Chicago, 
after  returning  from  his  London  mission,  he 
raised  the  money  to  free  it  from  debt,  after 
having  been  twice  burned  to  the  ground,  but 
for  this  timely  effort  of  his  the  present  magnifi- 
cent temple  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  would  not  be 
one  of  the  world's  best  material  monuments  of 
Christian  unity  (for  which  he  stood)  that  was 
ever  erected. 

The  lineal  descendants  of  his  first  enterprise, 
the  North  Market  Hall  Mission  Sunday-school, 
are  the  Bible  Institute  and  the  Chicago 
Avenue  Church,  now  filled  to  its  utmost  capa- 
city twice  every  Sunday  to  hear  the  plain  testi- 
mony of  Jesus,  which  theangelsaid  to  John  was 
"the  spirit  of  prophecy,"  or  preaching;  and 
conversions  follow  every  service  as  a  rule,  and 
some  times  scores  and  hundreds  attend  the 
second  meeting  which  follows  the  evening 
service. 

Being  dead,  he  yet  speaks  through  these  in- 
stitutions as  clearly  as  did  the  angels  when 
they  sang  "Glory  to  God  in  the  Highest"  and 
"On  earth  Peace  and  Good  Will  to  Men,"  at 
the  birth  of  Christ,  through  whose  Life  more 
abundant  now  given  to  men,  that  song  is  to  be 


DWIGHT  L.  MOODY.  13 

perpetuated  through  the  agency  of  such  men 
to  the  end  of  time. 

The  meaning  of  the  removal  of  such  work- 
men from  the  harvest  field  at  such  a  time  as  this 
is  beyond  our  ken,  when,  instead  of  one  re- 
moval a  regiment  of  them  seems  to  be  needed  for 
fields  white  for  the  harvest,  and  the  world  one  as 
it  never  was  before  by  the  power  of  steam  and 
electricity,  as  well  as  the  power  of  Christian 
civilization  in  the  strongest  nations  on  earth. 
Yea,  and  when  there  are  calls  on  Moody's 
desk  from  Europe  and  America  that  would  re- 
quire months,  if  not  years,  to  fill  if  he  were 
here  to  do  it. 

Why.''     God  only  knows. 


List  of  Illustrations. 


PAGE. 

Dwight  L.  Moody Frontispiece 

"The  Sower" 20 

Moody  Family  Gathering,  1867 29 

Period  Pictures  of  Mr.  Moody 39 

The  Old  and  the  New 49 

Mr.  Moody's  Missionary  Pony 59 

North  §;de  Tabernacle 77 

P.  P.  Bliss 87 

Ira  D.  Sankey 97 

Mr.  Moody's  Characteristic  Attitude 115 

Mr.  Moody  on  a  Morning  Drive 125 

Free  Church.  Assembly  Hall,  Edinburgh 135 

Exhibition  Hall,  Dublin 153 

Haymarket  Opera  House 171 

Characteristic  Page  from  Mr.  Moody's  Bible 182 

Farewell  Meeting  at  Glasgow 189 

Chicago  Avenue  Church 207 

Interior  of  Chicago  Church 225 

The  Empty  Chair 243 

The  Bible  He  Preached  From 261 

Moody  Bible  Institute 279 

Bible  Institute  Library 297 

A  Music  Lesson,  Bible  Institute 315 

Pastor's  Study,  Chicago  Avenue  Church 333 

Colportage  Cottage 351 

The  Funeral  Bier 367 

Congregational  Church,  Northfield 387 

Recitation  Hall 405 

Marquand  Memorial  Hall 423 

Mt.  Hermon  School 441 

East  Hall,  Northfield  Seminary 459 

Auditorium,  Northfield 477 

Recitation  Hall,  Northfield 495 


14 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

I.  Ancestors  of  Mr.  Moody— Statement  that  every 
other  Moody  family  contained  a  preacher — 
Three  great  Moody's,  one  in  the  seventeenth, 
one  in  the  eighteenth,  and  one  in  the  nine- 
teenth century 21-33 

II.  Moody's  early  life — Left  to  the  care  of  his 
mother  at  four — Eldest  brother  runs  away — 
Some  early  escapades — First  trip  away  from 
home 34-46 

III.  Life  in  Boston — Gets  a  place  in  his  uncle's  store 

— Forced  to  attend  church — His  conversion — 
Compelled  to  wait  six  months  before  being 
admitted  to  membership 48-57 

IV.  Beginning  of  his  career — Secures  employment  in 

Chicago,  and  invents  new  methods  of  secur- 
ing customers — His  first  Sunday-school — Some 
hard  experiences 57-67 

V.  President  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  for  four  years — 
Agent  of  the  United  States  Christian  Commis- 
sion—Comforts the  wounded  and  dying  on  the 

battle-field 68-72 

15 


16  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

VI.  First  meeting  with  Bliss — Life  of  the  great 
singing  evangelist — Some  of  the  great  songs  he 
wrote — His  end  at  Ashtabula 73-8o 

VII.  Sermons  on  P.  P.  Bliss— The  great  evangelist 
praises  the  dead  singer — Corrects  reports  about 
money  received  from  song  books 81-89 

VIII.  First  meeting  with  Sankey — An  attachment 
formed  which  lasts  through  life — Story  of  the 
great  singer's  early  days 90-94 

IX.     Side  lights  on  the  character  of  Mr.  Moody — His 
likes  and  dislikes — Some  men  he  admired — His 
~  belief  in  advertising 95-111 

X.  English  visit  of  Moody  and  Sankey  —  Great 
awakening  in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scot- 
land  1 12-127 

XI.  The  Birmingham  meeting — New  method  of  se- 
curing attendants  is  successful — Described  by 
an  English  critic 128-139 

XII.     Meetings  at  Boston — Great  gospel  campaign  at 

Brooklyn 140-146 

XIII.  Mr.  Moody's  crisp  sayings 147-168 

XIV.  Anecdotes 169-182 

XV.  Mr.  Moody's  Bible — Peculiar  manner  he  had  of 
marking  them — Death  of  his  mother— Connec- 
tion with  Miss  Willard 183-186 


CONTENTS.  17 

CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

XVI.  The  Kansas  City  meeting — Beginning  of  his 
illness  —  He  cannot  understand  his  failing 
strength 187-196 

XVII.     Death  of  Moody 197-204 

XVIII.    The  last  farewell 205-231 

XIX.     Eulogies  by  many  eminent  men  in  all  parts  of 

the  country 232-259 

XX.     Editorial  comment — The  leading  newspapers  of 

the  country  discuss  his  place  in  history. .  .260-277 

XXI.  Memorial  expressions  by  ministers  in  different 
cities,  giving  condensed  accotmts  of  his  life  and 
work 278-293 

XXII.     Last  of  the  group  —  Splendid    tribute    by    Dr. 

Hillis 294-303 

XXIII.  The  Northfield  schools 304-306 

XXIV.  Great  religious  revivals 307-312 

XXV.     Revival  sermon 313-336 

XXVI.  Sermon — Faith 337-355 

XXVII.  Sermon — Repentance 356-376 

XXVIII.  Sermon — Excused 377-401 

XXIX.  Sermon — No  room  for  Him 402-418 

XXX.  Sermon — Their  rock  is  not  our  rock 419-439 


18  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

XXXI.     Sermon— Tekel 440-464 

XXXII.     Sermon — No  difference 465-481 

XXXIII.  Sermon— Grace. 482-501 

XXXIV.  Sermon— Come 502-512 


Copyright,  1900,  by  Robt.  O.  Law, 

"THE    SOWER." 
Dedicated  to  Dwight  L.  Moody.     "And  behold  a  sower  went  forth  to  sow.' 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.   MOODY. 

Dwight  L.  Moody  descended  from  a  line  of  min- 
isters. It  has  been  said  that  every  other  Moody 
family  contained  a  preacher.  Some  of  them  have 
been  men  of  great  force  and  character,  and  have 
made  more  than  a  passing  impression  on  New  Eng- 
land history.  The  family  has  been  noted  for  lon- 
gevity, and  the  extent  of  the  literary  attainments  of 
its  members;  their  bold  persevering  habits;  their 
spirit  of  enterprise,  their  independence  of  mind  and 
character,  irrespective  of  the  popular  will,  and  for 
the  similarity  and  purity  of  their  religious  faith.  The 
average  age  of  seventeen  ancestors  of  Mr.  Moody, 
ranging  from  the  year  1633  to  1847,  was  67  years. 

Mr.  William  Moody,  the  principal  progenitor  of 
the  Moody  family  in  New  England,  came  according 
to  the  best  records  obtainable,  from  Wales,  in  1633, 
wintered  at  Ipswich,  and  removed  to  Newbury  with 
the-first  settlers  of  that  place  in  1635.  Here  he  was 
admitted  a  Freeman  and  received  a  grant  of  ninety- 
two  acres  of  land.  There  is  a  tradition  that  he  was  a 
blacksmith  by  trade,  and  another  that  he  was  a  sad- 
dler, and  it  is  very  probable  that  he  did  a  little  of 
both.  It  is  known,  however,  that  he  was  the  first  per- 
son in  New  England  to  adopt  the  practice  of  shoeing 
oxen  to  enable  them  to  walk  on  the  ice,  and  he  even 

21 


22  THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY. 

acquired    the     appellation    "The     learned     black 
smith. " 

Since  the  Moody  family  came  to  America  it  has 
never  lacked  an  exceptionally  great  preacher  of  the 
gospel.  Joshua  belonged  to  the  Seventeenth  cen- 
tury, Samuel  to  the  Eighteenth,  and  Dwight  to  the 
Nineteenth. 

Rev.  Joshua  Moodey,  a  son  of  William  Moody, 
although  he  spelled  his  name  differently,  was  born 
in  England  in  1633,  about  a  year  before  his  father 
came  to  this  country.  He  received  his  early  educa- 
tion at  Newbury,  and  was  prepared  for  admission  to 
college  by  Rev.  Thomas  Parker.  He  was  a  grad- 
uate of  Harvard  in  1653,  after  which  he  began  the 
study  of  divinity  and  early  began  to  preach.  He 
began  his  ministerial  labors  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H., 
early  in  the  year  1658,  at  which  place  he  laid  the 
foundation  and  eventually  gathered  the  first  Con- 
gregational church  in  that  place.  As  a  minister  he 
was  considered  zealous  and  faithful  and  for  many 
years  the  church  flourished  under  his  pastoral  care, 
during  which  time  he  distinguished  himself  by  his 
independent  and  faithful  manner  of  teaching  and 
the  strictness  of  his  church  discipline.  Mr.  Moodey 
became  involved  in  a  dispute  with  Mr.  Cranfield, 
who  was  lieutenant-governor  of  the  province,  and 
who  did  not  like  the  minister  because  he  thought  he 
stood  in  the  way  of  his  schemes  for  personal 
aggrandizement.  In  1684  a  Scotch  ketch  had  been 
seized  by  a  collector  and  carried  out  of  the  harbor 
in  the  night.  The  owner,  a  member  of  the  church, 
swore  upon  the  trial  that  he  had  not  a  hand  in  send- 
ing her  away  and  that  he  knew  nothing  about  it, 
but  the  circumstances  were  such   that   there   was 


THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY.  23 

Strong  suspicion  that  he  had  perjured  himself.  He 
found  means,  however,  to  settle  the  matter  with 
Cranfield  and  the  collector,  but  Mr.  Moodey  judged 
it  necessary  to  do  something  to  vindicate  the  honor 
of  his  church,  so  he  requested  of  the  Governor 
copies  of  the  evidence  for  the  purpose  of  instituting 
an  examination.  Cranfield  ordered  the  minister  to 
desist  and  threatened  him  with  the  consequences  in 
case  of  refusal,  but  Moodey  would  not  be  intimidated 
and  preached  a  sermon  upon  swearing  and  the  evil 
of  false  swearing.  The  Governor  in  order  to  wreak 
his  vengeance  determined  to  put  the  uniformity  act 
into  operation;  by  a  statute  then  in  force,  ministers 
were  required  to  admit  to  the  Lord's  Supper  all  per- 
sons who  should  desire  it,  who  were  "of  suitable 
years  and  not  vicous. "  Cranfield  gave  notice  that 
he  and  several  others  intended  on  the  following 
Sunday  to  partake  of  the  sacrament.  His  demand 
was  not  complied  with,  in  consequence  of  which 
Moodey  was  indicted  and  imprisoned  for  thirteen 
weeks.  After  his  persecution  in  Portsmouth  he  fled 
to  Boston  and  was  received  in  open  arms  by  the 
members  of  the  First  Church.  Even  while  at  Ports- 
mouth he  took  a  great  interest  in  Harvard  college 
and  succeeded  in  raising  a  fund  of  sixty  pounds  a 
year  for  seven  years  to  erect  a  brick  building  on  the 
Harvard  ground.  On  the  death  of  President  Rog- 
ers, July  2,  1684,  he  was  elected  his  successor,  as 
president  of  Harvard  College.  He  modestly  declined 
the  offer,  preferring  his  situation  as  assistant  min- 
ister in  the  First  Church.  He  was  a  strong  oppon- 
ent to  superstition,  was  involved  in  innumerable 
arguments  and  did  much  in  securing  the  release  of 
persons  who  were  arrested  in  Salem  and  Boston  for 


24  THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY. 

witchcraft.  He  w^nt  back  to  Portsmouth  in  1692 
after  many  solicitations  from  his  old  flock.  He  died 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1697,  in  the  65th  year  of  his  age, 
and  his  funeral  sermon  was  preached  by  Dr.  Cot- 
ton Mather. 

Rev.  Samuel  Moody  of  the  First  Parish  of  York, 
Maine,  was  the  fourth  son  of  Caleb  Moody  of  New- 
bury, and  a  grandson  of  William  Moody,  who  came 
from  England.  He  was  born  at  Newbury  on  the 
4th  of  January,  1675,  ^.nd  was  a  nephew  of  Rev. 
Joshua  Moodey.  Of  his  early  life  little  is  known, 
but  he  finished  his  education  at  Harvard  when  he 
was  twenty-two,  and  graduated  with  honors  in  the 
year  1697.  The  next  year  he  commenced  preaching 
in  York  and  was  regularly  ordained,  and  settled 
over  the  First  Parish  in  that  place  in  December, 
1700,  where  he  continued  an  eminently  useful  and 
successful  minister  of  the  gospel  for  nearly  fifty 
years. 

He  was  a  man  noted  for  his  piety  and  was  greatly 
beloved  and  no  less  feared  by  the  people  of  his 
charge.  He  was  distinguished  alike  for  his  eccen- 
tricities, his  zeal  as  a  man  of  God,  his  remarkable 
faith  and  fervency  in  prayer,  and  his  uncommon 
benevolence.  Histories  of  religion  in  New  England 
place  him  as  the  equal  of  any  gentleman  of  the 
clergy  of  that  day.  Previous  to  his  settlement  at 
York,  the  whole  town  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
Indians,  fifty  people  having  been  killed  and  one 
hundred  taken  captive. 

He  petitioned  the  Earl  of  Bellemoiit,  who  was 
then  Governor-in-Chief,  and  through  him  the  council 
and  representatives  of  the  province  assembled  in 
June,  1699,  for  a  competent  maintenance  as  a  chap- 


THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY.  25 

lain  to  the  garrison  at  York,  in  which  position  he 
had  served  for  upward  of  a  year,  and  the  council 
granted  him  twelve  pounds  out  of  the  public  treas- 
ury. 

He  was  a  man  of  prayer,  and  remarkable  for  his 
importunity  at  the  throne  of  grace.  An  instance 
of  his  power  of  prayer,  is  one  cited  against  the 
French  fleet  in  1746.  France  had  fitted  out  a  fleet 
with  the  intention  of  destroying  the  British  colonies. 
This  fact  was  known  in  this  country,  and  as  the  col- 
onists could  not  expect  any  aid  from  England,  of 
course  they  were  very  much  exercised  over  the 
event.  Moody  had  recourse  to  prayer.  He  appointed 
a  day  for  the  purpose,  praying  against  this  fleet,  and 
he  brought  to  view  the  expressions  made  use  of  in 
the  Scriptures  against  Sennacherib;  "Put  a  hook  in 
his  nose  and  a  bridle  in  his  lips ;  turn  him  back  again 
by  the  way  that  he  came,  that  he  shall  not  shoot  an 
arrow  here  nor  cast  up  a  bank ;  but  by  the  way  he 
came,  cause  him  to  return."  By  and  by  the  old 
gentleman  waxed  warm  and  raised  his  hands  and  his 
voice  and  cried  out,  "Good  Lord,  if  there  is  no  other 
way  of  defeating  their  enterprise,  send  a  storm  upon 
them  and  sink  them  in  the  ship."  It  was  found 
afterward  that  not  far  from  that  time  a  tremendous 
tempest  burst  upon  that  fleet,  and  foundered  many 
of  them.  A  remnant  of  the  fleet  got  into  Halifax, 
and  the  commander  was  so  disheartened,  thinking 
all  the  rest  were  lost  that  he  put  an  end  to  his  own 
life,  and  the  second  in  command  did  the  same,  and 
the  third  in  command  was  not  competent  for  the 
undertaking.  A  mortal  sickness  prevailed  among 
the  survivors,  and  great  numbers  of  them  laid  their 


26  THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY. 

bones  in  Halifax.     They  finally  packed  their  all  and 
went  back  to  France  without  striking  a  blow. 

His  faith  was  emulated  in  the  Nineteenth  century 
by  his  descendant.  A  story  is  told  of  him  that  he 
believed  that  if  he  asked  the  Lord,  He  would  pro- 
vide for  every  living  thing.  One  morning  his  wife 
told  him  the}''  had  nothing  for  dinner.  He  replied 
that  this  was  nothing  to  her:  what  she  had  to  do 
was  to  set  the  table  as  usual  when  the  dinner  hour 
came.  Accordingly,  when  the  hour  came,  she  set 
the  table,  spread  the  cloth  and  put  on  the  plates, 
and  just  then  a  neighbor  brought  in  a  good  dinner 
all  cooked. 

On  another  occasion  Mrs.  Moody  told  him  on  Sat- 
urday morning  that  they  had  no  wood.  "Well,"  he 
replied,  "I  must  go  into  my  study  and  God  will  pro- 
vide for  us."  During  the  day  a  Quaker  called  in 
and  asked  for  Mr.  Moody.  Mr.  Moody  appeared  and 
the  Quaker  said  to  him,  "Friend  Moody,  I  was 
carrying  a  load  of  wood  to  neighbor  A.  B. ,  and  just 
as  I  got  opposite  thy  door  my  sled  broke  down,  and 
if  thee  will  accept  of  the  wood,  I  will  leave  it  here. ' ' 
Mr.  Moody  told  him  it  was  very  acceptable  as  he 
was  entirely  out. 

His  daughter,  who  lived  in  Massachusetts,  told  of 
the  time  when  her  father  was  officiating  in  the  pul- 
pit of  her  husband, .  who  was  a  minister.  At  the 
time  great  ravages  were  being  made  by  the  canker 
worm,  which  well-nigh  destroyed  everything  green. 
On  Sunday  morning  when  they  went  to  the  meet- 
ing house,  the  canker  worms  were  so  numerous  that 
one  could  scarce  set  down  his  foot  without  crushing 
them  by  the  score.  Mr.  Moody's  text  was  from 
Mai.  iii:  2,   "I  will  rebuke  the  devourer  for  your 


THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY.  27 

sakes. "  As  he  wanned  up  he  seemed  filled  with  a 
sort  of  prophetic  fire  and  appealed  to  his  hearers  as 
follows:  "Brethren,  here  is  the  promise  of  God. 
Do  you  believe  it?  Will  you  repose  full  confidence 
in  it?  I  believe  it  and  feel  an  assurance  in  my  soul 
that  God  will  bring  it  to  pass. " 

It  was  noticed  that  when  the  service,  which  was 
long,  had  been  finished,  the  destoyer  had  disap- 
peared. Not  one  of  the  insects  that  had  been  so 
multitudinous  was  seen  around.  Historians  say 
that  they  were  seen  lying  dead  in  little  windrows 
on  the  shore  of  the  creek,  which  ran  through  the 
town. 

In  another  particular  the  modern  Evangelist 
emulated  his  distinguished  ancestor.  The  latter 
refused  to  receive  a  stipulated  salary,  but  rather 
chose  to  live  on  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the 
people.  It  has  been  said  that  he  literally  knew  not 
anything  that  he  possessed.  In  one  of  his  sermons 
he  mentioned  that  he  had  been  supported  for  twenty 
years  in  a  way  most  pleasing  to  him,  and  that  he 
had  been  under  no  necessity  of  spending  one  hour 
in  a  week  in  care  for  the  world.  Yet  he  was  some- 
times reduced  to  want,  though  his  confidence  in 
God  never  failed  him. 

His  benevolence  was  unbounded.  His  wife,  as 
well  as  others,  thought  he  was  too  lavish  of  his  little, 
when  anyone  applied  to  him  for  assistance  in  dis- 
tress. To  put  a  check  upon  his  liberality  and  give 
him  time  to  consider,  she  made  him  a  new  purse, 
but  when  she  had  put  the  change  into  it  she  tied  the 
strings  into  several  knots,  so  that  he  might  have 
time  for  reflection  while  untying  them.  Not  long 
after  this  a  poor  person  asked  him  for  alms.       He 


28  THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY. 

took  out  his  purse  and  attempted  to  untie  the 
strings,  but  finding  it  difficult,  he  told  the  person  he 
believed  the  Lord  intended  he  should  give  him  the 
.whole,  so  he  gave  the  purse  and  change  together. 
The  old  lady's  experiment  on  tl.is  occasion  was 
rather  a  losing  one. 

Once  when  he  was  going  to  Boston  to  attend  a 
great  convention  or  conference,  he  saw  a  poor  man 
in  the  hands  of  the  officers,  who  were  taking  him 
to  jail  for  debt.  Father  Moody  inquired  the  amount 
for  which  he  was  to  be  imprisoned,  and  found  that  he 
had  sufficient  to  defray  the 'debt,  which  he  immedi- 
ately did,  and  the  poor  man  was  liberated.  He  then 
turned  to  one  of  his  Elders  who  accompanied  him 
and  said  that  he  must  depend  upon  him  to  bear  the 
expense  of  the  journey,  as  he  had  nothing  left. 
The  Elder  ventured  respectfully  to  question  the 
propriety  and  prudence  of  his  conduct  in  thus  ren- 
dering himself  so  dependent,  but  the  old  clergyman 
replied:  "Elder,  does  not  the  Bible  asy,  'Cast  thy 
bread  upon  the  waters  and  thou  shalt  find  it  after 
many  days?'  "  Towards  evening  they  reached  the 
city  and  the  talent  and  piety  of  Boston  came  out 
upon  Boston  Common  to  see  the  famous  Father 
Moody.  The  Elder  related  the  morning  adventure 
and  after  they  had  retired  to  their  lodgings,  a 
waiter  brought  Father  Moody  a  sealed  packet.  He 
opened  it  and  found  it  contained  the  precise  sun) 
which  he  had  given  to  the  poor  man  in  the  morning. 
He  turned  to  the  Elder  and  exclaimed:  "I  cast  my 
bread  upon  the  waters  in  the  morning  and  behold 
it  is  returned  to  me  in  the  evening." 

His  aptness  for  quoting  and  applying  Scripture 
was  known  to  be  proverbial.     He  had  a  habit  when 


5  ^ 

H  .2 


<     J3 
M 

>  .s 

o  ^ 
O    (u 


THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY.  31 

performing  table  service,  of  quoting  some  passage 
of  Scripture  descriptive  of  the  food  provided;  one 
of  his  parishoners  desired  to  know  what  he  could 
find  in  the  Bible  to  suit  Shell-fish,  and  provided  a 
dinner  of  clams  and  invited  Mr.  Moody  to  dine  with 
him.  In  returning  thanks  after  the  refreshment, 
he  blessed  the  Lord  that  he  not  only  furnished  sup- 
plies from  the  produce  of  the  fields  and  flocks  and 
herds,  but  permitted  them  to  "suck  of  the  abund- 
ance of  the  seas  and  of  the  treasures  hid  in  the 
sand." 

He  was  an  extremely  eccentric  old  fellow  and 
numerous  anecdotes  are  related  on  this  particular 
phase  of  his  character.  At  a  certain  time  his  church 
got  into  difficulty.  At  a  church  meeting,  finding 
it  difficult  to  get  along,  they  concluded  by  his  advice 
to  adjourn  for  a  season  and  pray  for  light  and  direc- 
tion. On  the  next  Sabbath,  Mr.  Moody  preached 
from  the  following  text :  2  Chron.  xx :  1 2.  "Neither 
know  we  what  to  do,  but  our  eyes  are  upon  Thee." 
After  some  introductory  remarks,  he  stated  this  for 
his  doctrine:  "When  a  person  or  people  are  in  such 
a  situation  that  they  know  not  what  to  do,  they 
should  not  do  they  know  not  what,  but  their  eyes 
should  be  unto  the  Lord  for  direction. ' ' 

On  another  occasion  while  the  old  gentleman  was 
on  a  journey  to  the  Western  part  of  Massachusetts, 
he  called  on  a  brother  minister  one  Saturday,  with 
a  view  to  spending  the  Sabbath  with  him  if  agree- 
able. The  man  appeared  very  glad  to  see  him  and 
said:  "I  should  be  very  glad  to  have  you  stop  and 
preach  with  me  to-morrow,  but  I  feel  almost  ashamed 
to  ask  you."  "Why,  what  is  the  matter?"  said  Mr. 
Moody.     "Our  people  have  got  into  such  a  habit  of 


32  THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY. 

going  out  before  the  meeting  is  closed,  that  it  seems 
to  be  an  imposition  upon  a  stranger."  "If  that  is 
all,  I  must  and  will  stop  and  preach  for  you,"  was 
Mr.  Moody's  reply.  When  the  Sabbath  day  came, 
and  Mr.  Moody  had  opened  the  meeting  and  named 
his  text,  he  looked  around  on  the  assembly  and  said : 
"My  hearers,  I  am  going  to  speak  to  two  sorts  of 
folks  to-day,  saints  and  sinners.  Sinners,  I  am 
going  to  give  you  your  portion  first,  and  I  would 
have  your  good  attention.  "  When  he  had  preached 
to  them  as  long  as  he  thought  best,  he  paused  and 
said:  "There,  sinners,  I  have  done  with  you  now; 
you  take  your  hats  and  go  out  of  the  meeting  house 
as  soon  as  you  please. "  But  they  tarried  and  heard 
him  through. 

He  was  remarkably  successful  as  a  minister,  and 
many  revivals  were  held  in  his  church  during  his 
ministry,  and  it  is  said  to  have  contained  between 
300  and  400  members  when  he  left  it.  His  greatest 
revival,  perhaps,  was  in  1741.  The  exact  number  he 
affiliated  with  his  church  will  perhaps  never  be 
known,  as  the  records  were  destroyed  when  the 
church  was  burned  the  next  year. 

The  old  man  had  as  his  guest  that  year  the  Rev. 
George  Whitefield,  the  celebrated  young  minister, 
whose  talents  and  fervent  piety  drew  from  the  con- 
gregation to  which  he  preached  the  strongest 
expressions  of  praise. 

In  1745,  two  years  before  his  death,  he  accotiipa- 
nied  the  American  army  as  chaplain  of  the  celebrated 
Cape  Breton  expedition.  The  old  man,  when  Louis- 
burg  was  taken,  shouldered  an  ax  and  went  up  to 
the  images  in  the  churches  and  actually  cut  them 


THE  ANCESTORS  OF  MR.  MOODY.  33 

down,  as  he  had  told  his  friends  he  would  when  he 
left  home. 

He  published  several  books,  among  which  were 
"The  Doleful  State  of  the  Damned,  especially  Such 
as  go  to  Hell  from  under  the  Gospel,"  "Judas,  the 
Traitor,  Hung  up  in  Chains  to  give  Warnings  to 
Professors  that  they  Beware  of  Worldlimindedness 
and  Hypocrisy ;  a  Discourse  concluding  with  a  Dia- 
logue," "A  Sermon  Preached  to  Children  After 
Catechizing  in  the  Town  of  York  (Me.)  July  25, 
1 72 1,"  "The  Way  to  Get  out  of  Debt,  and  the  Way 
to  Keep  out  of  Debt.  " 

Critics  who  have  read  these  books  declare  that 
they  compare  well  with  those  of  Baxter. 

He  died  at  the  age  of  ninety,  and  the  family  were 
assembled  in  the  room  at  the  time,  his  son  Joseph 
sitting  behind  him  on  the  bed,  holding  him  up  in  his 
arms.  When  he  had  ceased  to  breathe,  the  people  in 
the  room  began  to  remark  that  he  was  gone,  and  his 
son  exclaimed  in  a  loud  voice:  "And  Joseph  shall 
put  his  hands  upon  thine  eyes."  He  then  put  his 
hands  around  and  closed  his  eyes,  and  laid  the  life 
less  body  back  on  the  bed. 

His  remains  lie  buried  in  the  common  burying 
place  near  the  meeting  house  in  York,  and  on  his 
tombstone  is  this  inscription :  ' '  For  his  farther  char- 
acter read  Corinthians,  3d  Chapter,  and  first  six 
verses. ' ' 


CHAPTER   II. 


MOODY'S  EARLY  LIFE. 

Dwight  Lyman  Moody  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Northfield,  Mass.,  February  5th,  1837.  He  was  the 
sixth  child  of  Edwin  Moody  and  Betsy  Holton,  who 
were  married  January  3,  1828.  Nine  children  in 
all  blessed  the  union  of  this  couple,  seven  being  sons 
and  two  daughters.  The  homestead  consisted  of 
several  acres  of  typical  Massachusetts  land,  most  of 
which  was  of  a  stony  character,  and  covered  by  a 
mortgage.  The  father  tilled  his  acres  in  their  season 
and  at  other  times  worked  at  his  trade  as  a  stone- 
mason. According  to  the  best  accounts,  he  was  not 
a  successful  business  man,  and  the  latter  part  of  his 
life,  as  his  family  increased,  was  burdened  with 
debts.  His  crushed  spirit  and  business  reverses 
caused  his  death  after  a  few  hours'  illness.  Dwight 
was  then  only  four  years  old,  but  the  shock  of  that 
death  made  an  impression  upon  him  which  he  de- 
clared he  had  never  forgotten.  The  death  of  the 
father  was  followed  soon  after  by  the  birth  of  a  twin 
boy  and  girl.  Thus  Mrs.  Moody  was  burdened  with 
the  care  of  a  large  family,  the  eldest  of  whom  was 
only  fifteen  years.  The  old  puritan  idea,  coupled 
with  a  mother's  love,  made  her  anxious  to  keep  her 
brood  together,  and  she  bravely  set  about  caring  for 
them  all,  and  contrived  to  have  each  of  the  little 

34 


MOODY'S  EARLY  LIFE.  35 

hands  earn  something  toward  their  support.  They 
were  taught  to  till  the  garden  and  do  odd  jobs  for 
the  neighbors.  She  was  a  strict  Unitarian  of  the  old 
school,  a  creed  much  different  from  that  professed 
in  that  denomination  in  latter  days.  She  was  a  firm 
believer  in  the  Bible  and  its  teachings,  and  drew 
therefrom  the  inspiration  to  make  the  life  of  her 
children  dearer  to  the  great  Creator.  It  was  her 
daily  task  and  pleasure  to  teach  them  a  little  Bible 
lesson,  and  the  Sabbath  morning  found  them  wend- 
ing their  way  to  the  church  service  and  Sunday 
school. 

The  eldest  of  the  children  was  a  boy  of  rugged 
mien  who  had  an  inclination  to  break  away  from  his 
mother's  apron  strings.  He  had  read  the  literature 
of  the  plains,  and  wandered  off  into  the  world,  as  he 
thought,  to  seek  a  fortune.  This  was  one  of  the 
great  sorrows  of  the  Moody  family.  The  mother 
never  lost  hope ;  she  was  ever  praying  for  the  return 
of  her  boy.  As  time  went  on,  the  preparations  for 
his  home-coming  were  added  to  year  by  year.  This 
was  especially  true  of  Thanksgiving  time,  a  festival 
dear  to  the  hearts  of  all  New  Englanders.  For 
years  no  tidings  of  the  wandering  boy  reached  the 
mother;  night  after  night  her  sleep  was  disturbed 
by  a  dread  vision  of  him  lying  somewhere  in  the 
great  cold  world;  perhaps  suffering,  while  she  had 
enough  for  comfort.  She  was  constantly  sending 
to  the  little  postofiice  for  a  letter ;  sometimes  two 
or  three  times  a  day.  She  never  stated  that  she 
expected  a  letter  from  "him" — it  was  not  necessary 
that  she  should  do  so,  as  the  children  learned  by 
instinct  that  he  was  constantly  in  her  mind.  By 
common  consent,   his  name  was  never  mentioned, 


36  MOODY'S  EARLY  LIFE. 

except  in  the  mother's  prayer,  and  then,  when  in 
the  family  circle,  only  by  inference. 

Years  afterward,  when  the  widow  was  getting 
old  and  the  gray  was  replacing  the  black  in  her 
hair  and  she  had  almost  given  up  hope  of  ever  see- 
ing the  lost  one,  a  scene  took  place  which  changed 
her  sorrow  into  joy. 

In  the  dusk  of  a  New  England  summer  evening, 
a  long-bearded  stranger  approached  the  humble 
home  and  stood  upon  the  porch  gazing  in  the  open 
door  with  eager  eyes.  He  had  passed  through  the 
village,  looking  to  the  right  and  left  for  familiar 
faces  and  familiar  scenes.  He  had  wandered  in  the 
village  churchyard  and  visited  the  grave  of  his 
father,  to  learn  if  there  was  another  beside  it.  The 
widow  came  to  the  door  and  bid  the  stranger  in. 
The  old  eyes  which  had  watched  so  long  for  his  com- 
ing did  not  know  him  now.  He  was  only  a  lank 
boy  when  he  ran  away,  now  he  is  a  big  sun-burned 
and  whiskered  man. 

The  stranger  did  not  move  or  speak  in  response 
to  her  invitation.  He  bowed  his  head  and  stood 
there  reverently  and  humble  in  the  presence  of  her 
whose  love  he  had  slighted  and  whose  heart-strings 
he  had  almost  broken.  The  sense  of  his  ingrati- 
tude, and  the  memory  of  devotion  and  years  of 
anxiety  which  were  plainly  stamped  on  that 
mother's  face,  caused  the  tears  to  run  from  his 
eyes.  These  tears  were  the  means  by  which  his 
mother  recognized  him. 

"I  cannot  come  in,"  said  the  son,  "until  my 
mother  has  forgiven  me.  " 

It  may  be  surmised  that  he  did  not  stand  out  very 
long.     It  did  not  take  that  mother  many  seconds  to 


MOOUVS  EARLY  LIFE.  37 

get  her  arms  around  the  neck  of  that  prodigal  child. 
She  had  forgotten  the  sorrow  of  years,  in  the  joy 
of  seeing  him  once  again. 

The  Pastor  of  the  Unitarian  church  where  the 
Moodys  worshiped  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Everett,  and 
he  was  a  faithful  friend  of  the  widow  and  her  large 
family  of  children.  They  were  on  his  regular  visit- 
ing list  and  he  was  constantly  cheering  them  with 
pleasant  words.  It  was  he  who  settled  the  quarrels 
among  the  boys;  it  was  he  who  gave  them  bright 
pieces  of  silver  urging  them  to  good  deeds;  it  was 
he  who  bid  the  mother  to  keep  on  praying. 

At  one  time  the  great  evangelist  was  taken  into 
his  home  when  but  a  mite  of  a  boy,  to  run  errands 
in  the  Pastor's  household.  He  was  a  vigorous  lad 
and  was  familiar  with  all  the  pranks  known  to  all 
the  urchins  of  that  period.  The  good  minister's 
patience  was  sorely  tried  on  many  occasions,  but 
his  jolly  good-nature  stayed  the  use  of  the  rod. 

The  old  minister  had  quite  an  influence  with  the 
boy,  but  it  was  not  nearly  so  far-reaching  as  that  of 
his  mother.  She  was  almost  the  only  one  who 
could  command  implicit  obedience.  In  the  winter 
time  young  Moody  attended  the  village  school ;  but 
at  that  period  of  his  existence  he  had  little  desire 
for  learning,  and  at  the  end  of  his  six  or  seven  terms 
he  knew  but  little.  Mr.  Moody,  in  speaking  of  his 
school  days,  said: 

"I  remember,  when  a  boy,  I  used  to  go  in  a  cer- 
tain school  in  New  England,  where  we  had  a  quick- 
tempered master  who  always  kept  a  rattan.  It 
was,  'If  you  don't  do  this,  and  you  don't  do  that, 
I'll  punish  you. '  I  remember  many  times  of  this 
rattan  being  laid  upon    my  back.       I  think    I   can 


38  MOODY'S  EARLY  LIFE. 

almost  feel  it  now.  He  used  to  rule  that  school  by 
the  law.  But  after  a  while  there  were  some  parents 
who  were  in  favor  of  controlling  the  school  by  love. 
A  great  many  said  you  can  never  do  that  with 
those  unruly  boys,  but  after  some  talk  it  was  at 
last  decided  to  try  it.  I  remember  how  we  thought 
of  the  good  time  we  would  have  that  winter  when 
the  rattan  would  be  out  of  the  school.  We  thought 
we  would  then  have  all  the  fun  we  wanted ;  I  re- 
member who  the  teacher  was — it  was  a  lady — and 
she  opened  the  school  with  prayer.  We  hadn't  seen 
it  done  before  and  we  were  impressed,  especially 
when  she  prayed  that  she  might  have  grace  and 
strength  to  rule  the  school  with'  love.  Well,  the 
school  went  on  for  several  weeks  and  we  saw  no 
rattan,  but  at  last  the  rules  were  broken,  and  I 
think  I  was  the  first  boy  to  break  them.  She  told 
me  to  wait  till  after  school  and  then  she  would  see 
me.  I  thought  the  rattan  was  coming  out  sure, 
and  stretched  myself  up  in  warlike  attitude.  After 
school,  however,  I  didn't  see  the  rattan,  but  she  sat 
down  by  me  and  told  me  how  she  loved  me,  and 
how  she  had  prayed  to  be  able  to  rule  that  school 
by  love,  and  concluded  by  asking  me  if  I  loved  her 
to  try  and  be  a  good  boy.  Her  pleading  reached 
my  heart,  and  I  never  after  caused  her  trouble. " 

Mr.  Moody,  one  time,  when  talking  of  his  early 
childhood,  said  that  before  he  was  four  years  old, 
the  first  thing  he  remembered  was  the  death  of  his 
father ;  that  he  had  been  in  business  and  failed,  and 
that  soon  after  his  death  the  creditors  came  in  and 
took  everything.  He  said  it  seemed  that  one  calam- 
ity after  another  came  along  and  swept  over  the 
entire  household;  the    coming  of    the    twins  in  a 


MOODY'S  EARLY  LIFE.  41 

month  after  the  death  of  the  father,  the  rapacity  of 
the  creditors,  and  the  illness  of  the  mother,  together 
with  the  demoralized  state  of  the  family,  rendered 
the  household  anything-  but  a  congenial  home.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  the  elder  son  became  a  wan- 
derer. 

Another  incident  of  Mr.  Moody's  boyhood  days  is 
related  by  him  as  follows:  "I  v/as  in  a  field  one  day 
with  a  man  who  was  hoeing.  He  was  weeping, 
and  he  told  me  a  strange  story,  which  I  have  never 
forgotten.  He  said  that  when  he  left  home,  his 
mother  gave  him  this  text,  'Seek  first  the  Kingdom 
of  God,'  but  he  paid  no  heed  to  it.  He  said  when 
he  got  started  in  life,  and  his  ambition  to  get  money 
was  gratified,  it  would  be  time  enough  then  to  seek 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  He  went  from  one  town  to  an- 
other and  got  nothing  to  do.  When  Sunday  came,  he 
went  into  the  village  church  and  what  was  his  great 
surprise  to  hear  the  minister  give  out  the  text,  'Seek 
first  the  Kingdom  of  God. '  He  said  the  text  went 
down  to  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  but  thought  it  was 
but  his  mother's  prayer  following  him,  and  that 
some  one  must  have  written  to  that  minister  about 
him.  He  felt  very  uncomfortable,  and  when  the 
meeting  was  over,  he  could  not  get  that  sermon  out 
of  his  mind.  He  went  away  to  another  village,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  week,  went  into  another  church, 
and  he  heard  the  minister  give  out  the  same  text, 
'Seek  fir.st  the  Kingdom  of  God.'  He  felt  sure  this 
time  that  it  was  the  prayers  of  his  mother,  but  he 
said  calmly  and  deliberately,  'No,  I  will  first  get 
wealth. '  He  said  he  went  on,  and  did  not  go  into  a 
church  for  a  few  months,  but  the  first  place  of  wor- 
ship he  did  go  into,  he  heard  the  third  minister 


42  MOODY'S   EARLY   LIFE. 

preach  a  sermon  from  the  same  text.  He  tried  to 
stifle  his  feelings,  he  tried  to  get  the  sermon  out  of 
his  mind,  and  he  resolved  that  he  would  keep  away 
from  church  altogether.  For  a  few  years,  he 
never  entered  a  church  door.  'My  mother  died,' 
he  said,  *and  the  text  kept  coming  into  my  mind, 
and  I  said, "I  will  try  to  become  a  Christian.'  "  The 
tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks  as  he  said,  'I  could 
not.  No  sermons  ever  touched  me.  My  heart  is 
as  hard  as  stone. '  I  could  not  understand  what  it 
was  all  about ;  it  was  fresh  to  me  then.  I  went  to 
Boston  and  got  converted,  and  the  first  thought  that 
came  to  me  was  about  this  man.  When  I  went 
home,  I  asked  my  mother  about  him.  She  said  they 
had  taken  him  to  an  insane  asylum,  and  to  every 
one  who  went  there  he  pointed  with  his  finger  up- 
ward, and  told  him  to  seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  I  went  to  see  him,  and  I  found  him  in  a  rock- 
ing-chair, with  a  vacant,  idiotic  look  upon  him.  As 
soon  as  he  saw  me,  he  pointed  to  me  and  said: 
'Young  man,  seek  first  the  Kingdom  o£  God.' 
Reason  had  gone,  but  the  text  was  there." 

One  of  Mr.  Moody's  brothers  was  employed  in  a 
store  at  Greenfield,  a  short  distance  from  the  family 
home,  and  it  was  so  lonesome  there  for  him  that  he 
wanted  young  D wight  to  be  near  him  for  company. 
So  when  he  came  home  one  cold  Saturday  night  in 
the  month  of  November,  he  told  the  boy  that  he  had 
a  place  for  him.  Dwight  didn't  want  to  go,  but 
after  the  matter  was  talked  over  by  the  family,  he 
decided  that  the  next  morning  he  would  visit  the 
man,  and  if  the  conditions  were  to  his  liking,  he 
might  accept  the  place.     In  one  of  his  sermons,  Mr. 


MOODY'S   EARLY  LIFE.  43 

Moody  tells  that  incident.  He  said  that  the  brothers 
started  off  in  the  early  morning,  and  when  they  got 
to  the  top  of  the  hill,  they  looked  back  at  the  home, 
and  he  thought  that  this  would  be  the  last  time  that 
he  would  ever  see  it,  and  he  cried  as  if  his  heart 
would  break.  This  he  continued  until  he  arrived 
at  Greenfield.  There  his  brother  introduced  him  to 
an  old  man  who  was  so  old  that  he  could  not  milk 
his  cows  and  do  the  chores,  and  young  Dwight  was 
to  run  his  errands  and  go  to  school.  Mr.  Moody 
said  that  he  looked  at  the  old  man,  and  thought 
that  he  was  cross,  and  that  he  looked  at  his  wife, 
and  thought  that  she  was  crosser  than  the  old  man. 
He  said  that  when  he  had  stayed  there  an  hour,  it 
seemed  like  a  week,  and  then  he  went  around  to  his 
brother  and  said : 

"I  am  going  home." 

"What  are  you  going  home  for?"  asked  his 
brother. 

"I  am  homesick,"  Dwight  said. 

"Oh,  well,  you  will  get  over  it  in  a  few  days." 

"I  never  will,  I  don't  want  to,"  said  the  boy. 

"You  will  get  lost  if  you  start  home  now,  it  is 
getting  dark. '  * 

Dwight  was  frightened  then,  as  he  was  only  about 
ten  years  old,  and  he  said,  "I  will  go  at  daybreak 
to-morrow  morning." 

His  brother  then  took  him  to  a  shop  window 
where  they  had  some  jack-knives,  and  jew's-harps 
and  dolls,  and  other  things  that  boys  are  supposed 
to  like,  with  the  idea  of  diverting  his  mind,  but  what 
did  the  lonesome  boy  care  for  those  old  jack-knives, 
or  jew's-harps,  or  dolls?  He  wanted  to  get  back 
home  to  his  mother  and  brothers.       It  seemed   as 


44  MOODY'S  EARLY  LIFE. 

though  his  heart  was  breaking.  All  at  once  his 
brother  said : 

"Dwight,  here  comes  a  man  that  will  give  you  a 
cent." 

"How  do  you  know  he  will?"  the  boy  asked. 

"Oh,  he  gives  every  new  boy  that  comes  to  town 
a  cent, ' '  said  his  brother. 

Dwight  brushed  away  his  tears,  for  he  would  not 
have  him  see  that  he  had  been  crying,  and  he  got 
right  in  the  middle  of  the  sidewalk,  where  he  could 
not  help  but  see  him,  and  kept  his  eyes  right  upon 
him.  He  always  remembered  how  that  old  man 
looked  as  he  came  tottering  down  the  sidewalk.  He 
remembered  the  bright,  cheerful,  sunny  face. 
When  the  man  came  opposite  to  where  he  was,  he 
stopped,  took  Dwight's  hat  off,  put  his  hand  on  his 
head  and  said  to  his  brother : 

"This  boy  is  new  in  town,  isn't  he?". 

"Yes,  sir,  he  has  just  come  to-day,"  said  his 
brother. 

Young  Moody  watched  to  see  if  he  would  put  his 
hand  into  his  pocket;  he  was  thinking  of  that  cent. 
The  old  man  began  to  talk  to  him  so  kindly  that  he 
soon  forgot  all  about  it.  He  told  him  the  story  of  God 
and  His  only  Son,  and  how  wicked  men  had  killed 
Him,  and  how  He  had  died  for  all.  He  talked  only 
five  minutes,  but  he  had  him  fascinated,  and  then 
he  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket,  and  took  out  a  brand 
new  cent,  a  copper  that  looked  just  like  gold.  This 
he  gave  him,  and  the  boy  thought  it  was  gold,  and 
he  held  it  very  tight.  He  never  felt  so  rich  before. 
"I  do  not  know  what  became  of  that  cent,"  he  said 
in  speaking  of  the  affair.  "I  have  always  regretted 
that  I  did  not  keep  it,  but  I  can  feel  the  pressure  of 


MOODY'S   EARLY   LIFE.  45 

that  old  man's  hand  upon  my  head  to  this  day. 
Fifty  years  have  rolled  away,  and  I  can  hear  those 
kind  words  ringing  yet.  I  shall  never  forget  the 
act.  He  put  the  cent  at  usury,  and  that  cent  has 
cost  me  a  great  many  dollars. ' ' 

Mr.  Moody  used  to  tell  a  story  in  which  he  related 
how  he  and  the  other  boys  in  the  neighborhood,  in 
the  spring  of  the  year,  when  the  snow  had  melted 
away  from  the  New  England  hills,  would  take  a 
piece  of  glass,  and  hold  it  up  to  the  warm  rays  of 
the  sun,  and  that  these  rays  would  strike  through 
the  glass,  and  set  the  woods  and  grass  on  fire,  and 
that  these  escapades  caused  the  neighbors  much 
trouble  and  anxiety. 

Mr.  Moody  said  that  when  he  was  a  boy,  his 
mother  used  to  send  him  out  to  get  a  birch  stick  to 
whip  him  with,  when  it  was  necessary  that  he  be 
punished,  which  was  quite  often.  He  said  that  at 
first  he  used  to  stand  off  from  the  rod  as  far  as  he 
could,  but  that  he  soon  learned  that  the  whipping 
hurt  him  more  that  way,  and  so  after  that  he  always 
went  as  near  his"  mother  as  he  could,  and  found  that 
she  could  not  strike  him  so  hard. 

He  said  that  among  the  other  things  which  he  did 
on  the  farm,  was  the  hoeing  of  corn,  and  that  he 
used  to  hoe  it  so  badly  in  order  to  get  over  as  much 
ground  as  he  could,  that  at  night  he  had  to  put  down 
a  stick  so  as  to  know  next  morning  where  he  had 
left  off. 

Mr.  Moody  said  he  had  little  faith  in  prayer  in  his 
boyhood  days,  but  that  faith  came  to  him  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner.  He  was  creeping  under  a  heavy 
tence,  and  it  fell  down  and  caught  him,  so  that  he 
tould  not  get  away.     He  struggled  until  he  was 


46  MOODYS  EARLY   LIFE. 

quite  exhausted,  and  then  began  to  cry  for  help,  but 
he  was  so  far  from  any  house  no  one  heard  him. 
He  then  began  to  think  that  he  should  have  to  die 
away  up  there  on  the  mountain  all  alone,  but  then 
he  happened  to  remember  that  maybe  God  would 
help  him,  and  so  he  asked  Him,  and  he  said  that  he 
was  greatly  surprised  to  see  that  he  could  lift  the 
rails  so  easily. 

It  was  at  the  earnest  entreaty  of  his  mother  that 
in  the  latter  part  of  his  school  days,  he  attempted 
to  do  some  hard  studying.  His  last  term  at  school 
was  in  the  winter  of  his  seventeenth  year,  but  his 
resolution  to  gain  a  little  knowledge  came  so  late, 
that  although  he  studied  very  hard,  it  availed  him 
little. 

Whatever  religious  impressions  he  had  felt  in 
childhood,  seemed  to  have  been  covered  out  of  sight, 
and  he  grew  up  to  be  a  young  man  with  no  other 
piety  in  him  than  the  love  of  his  mother  and  a 
sturdy  determination  to  be  an  honest  and  successful 
man.  He  was  endowed  with  a  determination  that 
he  would  succeed  somehow,  and  his  deficiencies  in 
education  were  over-balanced  by  a  bold  push  aided 
by  a  ready  wit,  which  carried  him  over  many  diffi- 
culties, before  which  a  wiser  but  less  courageous 
boy  would  have  quailed  in  despair. 


CHAPTER   III. 


LIFE  IN  BOSTON. 

Young  Moody  at  the  age  of  seventeen  left  North- 
field  with  his  mother's  permission  to  seek  employ- 
ment. He  first  went  to  Clinton,  where  he  had  a 
brother  who  was  a  clerk  in  a  store,  but  finding  noth- 
ing there  to  suit  him,  he  pushed  on  to  Boston.  His 
uncle,  Samuel  Holton,  a  successful  merchant  of  Bos- 
ton, had  visited  the  old  home  a  little  while  before, 
and  Dwight  had  asked  him  for  a  place  in  his  boot 
and  shoe  store.  The  uncle,  knowing  what  a  wild 
young  colt  he  was,  had  refused,  fearing  to  take  him 
to  a  great  city,  where  the  chances  were  that  he 
would  go  straight  to  ruin.  But  the  young  man  was 
determined  to  show  his  uncle  that  he  could  find,  or 
make  a  place  for  himself  without  help  from  any 
one.  Accordingly,  much  to  that  excellent  gentle- 
man's surprise,  his  nephew  one  day  made  his 
appearance  in  his  store,  not  to  ask  for  a  place  but 
just  as  a  visitor. 

His  uncle,  Lemuel,  a  younger  brother  of  his 
mother,  lived  in  Boston,  and  at  his  house  young 
Moody  was  made  welcome.  He  at  once  began  to  look 
for  a  situation,  but  did  not  succeed  very  well.  The 
odor  and  the  air  of  the  farm  were  upon  him ;  the 
touch  of  the  mountain  breeze  was  still  in  his  cheeks, 
and  these  distinguished  him  from  the  dwellers  in 

47 


48  LIFE  IN  BOSTON. 

the  city.  His  clothes  were  not  of  the  fashionable 
cut  of  the  day.  In  some  places  they  were  shiny; 
in  others,  seedy,  and  his  trousers  bagged  at  the  knee. 
At  this  time  he  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  inherit  a  big 
boil  on  his  neck,  which  forced  his  head  to  rest  on 
one  side,  and  gave  him  a  comical,  if  not  a  grotesque 
appearance,  and  of  course  this  did  not  help  his  pros- 
pects for  obtaining  a  situation. 

At  the  end  of  a  week  he  was  much  disgusted,  but 
not  discouraged;  he  began  to  think  that  nobody  in 
Boston  appreciated  him,  and  he  did  have  a  very  fair 
idea  of  his  own  worth.  He  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  must  move  on,  and  he  picked  upon  New 
York  as  the  place  to  which  he  thought  it  would  be 
well  to  go.  All  his  money  was  gone,  and  he  knew 
that  he  must  make  the  journey  on  foot,  if  he  went 
at  all,  as  he  had  nothing  which  he  could  sell  to  raise 
more  funds.  His  uncle  Lemuel  asked  him  if  he  had 
called  upon  his  uncle  Samuel  for  aid  to  a  situation. 

"No,"  said  D wight,  "he  knows  that  I  am  looking 
for  a  place,  and  he  may  help  me  or  not  just  as  he 
pleases." 

His  pride,  however,  was  beginning  to  bend  just  a 
little,  but  it  was  by  no  means  ready  to  break.  He 
was  adrift  in  a  world  which  seemed  to  care  for  him 
no  more  than  the  ocean  waves  care  for  a  floating 
piece  of  cork  wood.  His  uncle  Lemuel  thought  it 
might  be  well  to  give  the  young  man  some  advice, 
so  he  gave  him  a  good  fatherly  talk.  He  told  him 
that  his  self-will  was  greatly  in  his  way,  and  that 
modesty  was  sometimes  as  needful  as  courage,  and 
suggested  that  his  uncle  Samuel  would  no  doubt  be 
glad  to  do  something   for  him,  if  he  should  show 


LIFE  IN  BOSTON.  51 

himself  a  little  more  willing  to  be  governed  by  peo- 
ple who  were  older  and  wiser  than  himself. 

Acting  upon  this  advice,  he  was  kindly  received 
by  his  uncle  Samuel,  who  consented  to  give  him  a 
place  as  a  salesman  in  his  store  upon  the  following 
conditions : 

That  he  was  to  board  at  some  place  to  be  selected 
by  his  uncle. 

That  he  was  not  to  be  out  in  the  streets  after 
night,  or  go  to  places  of  amusement,  which  his 
uncle  did  not  approve. 

That  he  was  regularly  to  attend  the  Mount  Ver- 
non (Congregational)  church  and  Sunday-school. 

His  uncle  was  a  successful  business  man.  He, 
too,  had  come  to  Boston  in  his  youth,  and  knew  of 
the  snares  and  temptations  to  which  a  young  man 
was  subjected,  and  he  was  satisfied  that  if  young 
Dwight  would  adhere  strictly  to  the  code  he  had  laid 
down  for  him,  that  he  would  succeed.  He  had  for 
many  years  been  a  member  of  the  Mount  Vernon 
church,  and  he  knew  that  the  young  man  would  be 
sure  to  find  there  good  companions,  a  thing  which 
he  considered  of  vital  importance.  To  the  three 
conditions  above  enumerated,  a  general  one  was 
added,  which  was  that  Dwight  was  to  be  governed 
by  the  judgment  of  his  uncle  rather  than  his  own; 
or,  in  other  words,  that  he  was  to  give  due  obedi- 
ence to  his  superiors. 

Young  Moody  was  in  such  a  state  of  mind,  and 
was  so  thankful  for  the  aid  which  his  uncle  had 
offered  him,  that  he  readily  agreed  to  all  of  the  con- 
ditions, and  to  his  credit,  it  may  be  said  that  he 
kept  them  faithfully.   A  home  was  found  for  him  in 

a  Christian  family,  who  lived  in  humble  style,  but 
4 


r.2  LII'^IO   IN   UOSTON. 

llic  nionil  iitmosphcrc  w.is  such  that  it  more  than 
foinpcnsatcd  for  any  hick  of  bodily  comforts.  A 
fcH'hii};  natural  to  one  in  his  condition,  sprunj^  up  in 
the  breast  of  youn;^  Moody,  and  that  was  that  the 
people  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  in  liis  church 
and  business  life  felt  that  they  were  just  a  little  bit 
better  than  he.  He  saw  that  he  had  nej^lected  his 
opportunities  in  the  country  school,  and  that  his 
meaj^re  education  had  not  fitted  him  to  shine  in  cul- 
tivated society,  l^^or  a  time  he  was  inihappy,  but  he 
steadily  held  to  his  purpose  of  concjuerinj^  a  place 
for  himself  in  the  world,  and  he  felt  sure  of  ultimate 
success. 

He  was  a  shari),  shrewd  boy,  a  keen  observer  of 
man  and  thinji^^s,  even  at  that  early  aj^e,  and  was 
possessed  after  a  short  time,  with  a  jud^tuent  rare 
in  a  boy  who  had  been  raised  under  such  environ- 
ments. What  he  lacked  in  knowledj^'c  he  made  up 
in  shrewd  ^iiessiny;,  and  within  three  months  after 
he  entered  the  store  of  his  uncle,  he  was  the  best 
salesman  in  the  house.  Ilis  idea  of  business  was  a 
stru};;;li'  with  mankind,  out  of  which  the  hardest 
heads  and  the  sharpest  wits  were  sure  to  come  with 
llu^  larjjcst  influence  and  the  ionj^-er  purse.  His 
uneles  were  ({uiet  men  and  conservative.  I)wij.jht 
was  opposetl  to  silence  and  conservatism.  Their 
i(U"as  were  not  his  ideas,  althouj^h  their  aim  may 
have  been  the  same.  They  were  slow  and  method- 
ical; he  was  l)rus(pie,  impulsive  ami  a^^ressivc. 
lie  had  a  hi^jh  sense  of  what  he  thouj^ht  was  right, 
and  was  (piick  to  resent  what  he  deemed  any  attack 
upon  his  honor.  These  little  tempests  of  passion 
soon  passed  away,  however.  It  may  be  imagined 
that   this   peculiar   char.ieleristic  of   the  young  man 


Ml'MC   IN   l'.(JST()N.  :,,{ 

somctinios  created  cuiisLcrnation  in  the  conservative 
old  business  house,  anil  it  reiiuired  S[)lendid  diplo- 
matic ability  on  the  part  of  the  superiors  to  keep 
peace  anion;^  the  inferiors. 

The  church  which  his  uncle  rcipiired  him  to  attend 
was  Congrejj^ational  in  its  character,  and  was  one  of 
the  most  orthodox  and  excellent  in  all  that  sc;ction 
of  the  country.  Its  pastor,  Dr.  Kirl<,  was  a  man  of 
magnificent  physi([ue,  of  j^cat  knowh-dj-.e,  of  cap- 
tivatinj^' manners,  and  ;4reat  oratorical  |)owers.  lie 
was  such  a  man  as  would  naturally  draw  lo  him  a 
character  such  as  that  of  youn;j;  Moody.  No  ordi- 
nary preacher  would  have  been  able  to  have  done 
this.  Younjj;  iJwight  saw  in  this  minister  a  man 
who  was  a  success. 

Mr.  ICdward  Kimball  was  the  teacher  of  the  l>ible 
class,  in  which  he  was  placed  in  the  .Sunday-school. 
His  first  visits  to  the  class  were  by  reason  of  iiis 
aj^rc;enu'nt  with  his  untd(^,  but  it  was  with  evident 
weariness  and  im[)atience  that  he  listened  to  the 
lessons  and  explanations.  The  teacher  stated  in 
speal<in;j^  of  the  affair  in  after  years  that  he  did  not 
seem  to  be  able  to  ^vX  hold  of  the  younj^'  man,  and 
that  he  even  felt  tii.il  h(^  wa:;  failing'-  to  interest  him, 
but  that  one  Sunday,  the  lesson  ha])pened  to  be 
about  Moses,  and  that  he  noticed  that  the  youn;jf 
boy  listened  with  considerabh;  att(Mition,  and  was 
at  last  so  interested  as  to  actually  ask  a  (juestioji, 
the  first  remark  he  had  made.  The  teacher  received 
the  question  with  much  favor,  and  enlarjuMl  upon  it 
nnich  to  the  youth's  satisfaction.  Tiie  boy  soon 
bej^an  to  take  an  interest  in  his  teacher,  but  his  dis- 
like for  the  vSunday-school  and  the  church  seemed 
to  be  j^aowin^.     It  seemed  to  him  that  the  people 


54  LIFE  IN  BOSTON. 

were  so  rich,  so  proud  and  so  pious,  that  they  lived 
in  a  different  world  from  his.  The  youth  of  his  age 
wore  better  clothes,  and  spent  a  great  deal  of  money, 
and  he  felt  that  he  could  not  imitate  them.  There- 
fore, he  considered  himself  a  victim  of  misfortune, 
and  had  a  habit  of  revenging  himself,  as  many  peo- 
ple do  under  like  circumstances,  by  denouncing  his 
more  fortunate  fellov;  creatures  for  their  pride.  It 
was  not  long,  hower  er,  before  the  spirit  of  God  be- 
gan to  make  itself  manifest  in  his  soul.  His  heart 
gradually  began  to  soften.  He  thought  often  of 
the  lessons  taught  him  by  his  mother,  and  he  began 
again  to  pray  the  Lord  to  help  him  to  be  good.  One 
day  his  Sunday-school  teacher  came  to  him  in  his 
place  of  business,  and  putting  his  hand  kindly  upon 
his  shoulder,  inquired  if  he  would  not  give  his  heart 
to  Christ.  The  question  awakened  him,  and  he  be- 
gan to  seek  the  Savior  in  earnest,  and  in  a  little  while 
he  began  to  feel  that  he  had  been  converted.  Years 
afterward,  he  used  to  say:  "I  can  feel  the  touch  of 
that  man's  hand  on  my  shoulder  yet."  He  carried 
into  his  religion  the  same  enthusiasm  that  he  used 
in  his  business,  and  he  soon  began  to  speak  in  the 
meetings  of  the  church,  telling  what  God  had  done 
for  his  soul,  and  sometimes  adding  a  piece  of  ex- 
hortion,  which  was  not  always  flattering  to  the  ele- 
gant believers  around  him,  and  which  was  many 
times  received  with  disfavor. 

It  is  related  that  one  good  lady,  a  member  of  the 
congregation,  one  of  those  prim,  stately  old  New 
England  damsels,  who  doubtless  traced  her  ancestry 
back  to  the  Mayflower  pilgrims,  called  upon  his 
uncle  Samuel,  and  requested  that  he  advise  the 
young  man  to  remain  silent  until  he  should  become 


LIFE  IN  BOSTON.  55 

more  able  to  edify  the  meetings.  His  uncle  replied 
that  he  was  glad  his  nephew  had  the  courage  to 
profess  his  faith  in  such  presence,  and  declined  to 
put  anything  in  his  way. 

In  the  course  of  time,  he  made  application  to  be 
received  into  the  Mount  Vernon  church,  and  went 
before  the  deacons  to  be  examined  as  to  his  faith 
and  doctrine.  His  early  training  in  religious  mat- 
ters had  been  in  a  general  way.  He  had  not  been 
taught  the  catechism  of  any  creed.  His  mother  was 
a  believer  in  the  Bible,  and  explained  it  according 
to  her  light  without  reference  to  any  particular  sect. 
Thus  it  was  that  when  he  came  to  pass  the  strict 
doctrinal  examination,  he  found  himself  illy  quali- 
fied. There  was  nothing  lacking  in  his  faith,  but 
his  doctrine  was  lamentably  weak.  Orthodox  the- 
ology had  made  little  impression  upon  him.  He 
was  completely  at  sea  on  the  questions  propounded 
to  him  by  the  deacons,  but  he  was  familiar  with  his 
duty  to  Christ,  to  the  church  and  the  world,  and  he 
was  willing  and  anxious  to  do  it.  The  deacons  did 
not  take  kindly  to  this  kind  of  theology.  In  those 
days,  doctrine  was  one  of  the  great  things  neces- 
sary to  a  man's  salvation,  and  he  who  had  not  doc- 
trinal points  at  the  end  of  his  tongue,  was  not,  in 
their  judgment,  considered  a  fit  candidate  for  full 
church  membership.  They  wanted  the  young  man 
to  succeed,  they  wanted  him  to  become  a  member  of 
their  church,  but  they  could  not  see  their  way  clear 
to  accepting  him  at  that  time.  They,  therefore, 
proposed  to  put  him  on  probation.  This  the  young 
man  accepted,  and  continued  his  heavenward  course, 
meanwhile  imbibing  a  number  of  the  doctrinal 
points.     After  a  time,   he  made  a  second  applica- 


56  LIFE  IN  BOSTON. 

tion,  and  at  the  May  communion,  in  the  year  1855, 
he  was  received  into  the  church.  Some  years 
afterward,  Dr.  Kirk,  the  pastor,  was  in  Chicago, 
and  heard  the  young  man  preach,  stayed  at  his 
house,  preached  in  his  pulpit,  and  conversed  with 
the  people  about  him,  and  when  he  returned  East, 
he  called  upon  Moody's  uncle  Samuel,  and  said  to 
him: 

"We  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  ourselves.  There  is 
that  young  Moody,  whom  we  thought  did  not  know 
enough  to  be  in  our  church  and  Sunday-school,  ex° 
ercising  a  greater  influence  for  Christ  than  any  other 
man  in  the  great  Northwest." 

Mr.  Moody  never  forgot  the  kind  help  of  his 
teacher,  Mr.  Kimball.  He  claimed  it  as  one  of  the 
sweetest  experiences  of  his  life  when  he  had  become 
a  successful  evangelist.  Many  years  after,  when 
Mr.  Moody  was  holding  some  meetings  in  Boston,  a 
young  man  came  to  him  after  the  service  and  intro- 
duced himself  as  the  son  of  Mr.  Kimball.  Mr. 
Moody  was,  of  course,  delighted  to  see  him,  and  at 
once  inquired  if  he  was  a  Christian.  The  young 
man  answered  that  he  was  not. 

"How  old  are  you?"  asked  Mr.  Moody. 

"Seventeen,"  replied  the  young  man. 

"Just  my  age,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  "when  your 
father  led  me  to  the  Savior,  and  that  was  just  sev- 
enteen years  ago  this  very  day.  Now,  I  want  to 
pay  him  by  leading  his  son  to  Christ." 

The  young  man  was  deeply  impressed.  They 
went  into  a  pew  together.  Mr.  Moody  prayed  with 
him,  and  received  his  promise  to  give  his  heart  to 
Christ.     Soon  afterward,  he  received  a  letter  from 


LIFE  IN  BOSTON.  67 

his  old  teacher,  in  which  he  said  that  his  son  had 
found  peace  in  believing. 

Mr  Moody  carried  his  business  push  into  the 
church,  and  Dr.  Kirk  was  many  times  obliged  to 
put  an  extinguisher  on  the  young  man,  who  always 
wanted  to  talk.  He  reminded  one  of  a  steam-engine 
in  his  enthusiasm.  His  conversion  seemed  to  force 
him  to  want  to  do  something  more  than  was  being 
done  in  the  church.  He  could  not  understand  that 
a  man  could  be  a  conservative  Christian.  He 
thought  that  he  must  always  be  fighting  sin  in 
whatever  guise  he  found  it.  He  believed  that  the 
old  bones  needed  rattling  up.  He  wanted  to  set  the 
church  members  to  working,  but  they  did  not  take 
kindly  to  innovations.  He  began  to  think  that  a 
change  of  scene  was  what  he  needed.  He  had  heard 
and  read  much  of  the  West,  and  he  believed  that 
there  he  would  have  better  opportunities  for  fulfill- 
ing his  business  aspirations,  and  a  freer  range  for 
his  religious  convictions.  So,  in  1856,  in  the  month 
of  September,  he  left  Boston,  and  a  few  days  later 
arrived  in  Chicago. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER. 

When  Mr.  Moody  arrived  in  Chicago,  he  carried 
letters  of  introduction  to  a  number  of  merchants  in 
the  boot  and  shoe  line,  this  being  the  only  class  of 
business  with  which  he  was  familiar,  he  had  little 
trouble  in  securing  a  situation  with  a  Mr.  Wiswall. 
He  conducted  a  flourishing  store  on  Xake  Street. 
The  young  Yankee  soon  made  his  influence  felt, 
there  was  a  hustle  about  him  which  pleased  his 
employer  and  caused  his  fellow  clerks  to  look  on  in 
astonishment.  He  earned  every  cent  of  salary  that 
was  paid  him  and  it  was  raised  more  than  once  in 
a  few  years  in  which  he  remained  in  the  business. 
He  introduced  new  ideas  constantly.  In  those  days 
it  was  the  habit  of  clerks  to  sit  around  and  read  the 
papers  when  no  customers  were  within,  this  young 
Moody  never  did.  If  no  buyers  appeared  at  the 
store  he  went  out  after  them,  he  beat  about  the 
hotels;  depots  and  other  places  where  he  was  likely 
to  fall  in  with  merchants  from  the  country.  When 
he  found  them  he  had  a  faculty  of  persuading  them 
that  the  goods  which  he  sold  were  far  superior  in 
every  respect  to  the  goods  sold  by  other  people  in 
the  same  line  of  business,  and  that  the  methods  and 
business  integrity  of  his  firm  was  the  superior  of 
all.  It  is  the  general  impression  of  all  who  knew 
his  early  prospects,    that    if   he   had   devoted   his 

68 


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MO 

BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER.  61 

life  to  business  he  would  have  become  one  of 
the  recognized  commercial  men  of  the  United 
States,  and  perhaps  one  of  its  wealthiest  merchants. 
His  enterprise,  organizing  powers  and-  financial 
ability  were  recognized  and  remarked  upon  at  all 
times.  His  friends  tried  in  every  way  to  persuade 
him  to  stick  to  a  mercantile  career,  but  he  was  not 
to  be  turned  from  his  decision  to  devote  his  life  to 
the  saving  of  souls.  No  better  evidence  of  Mr. 
Moody's  business  ability  can  be  cited  than  the  suc- 
cessful operation  of  the  splendid  settlement  of 
schools  at  Northfield,  and  of  the  Bible  Institute  and 
its  attendant  features  here  in  Chicago. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  Mr.  Moody,  when  he 
removed  to  the  West,  was  to  join  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  of  Chicago,  and  to  hire  therein  not 
one  but  four  pews,  he  had  determined  that  any 
money  which  he  received  for  his  services,  and  which 
was  not  necessary  to  the  support  of  his  mother  and 
her  family  in  Northfield,  and  not  necessary  for  the 
defraying  of  slight  expenses  necessary  for  his  own 
support,  should  be  applied  to  the  spreading  of  the 
gospel,  he  believed  that  as  he  gave  so  would  he 
prosper,  that  he  could  do  more  good  for  himself  and 
for  others  by  giving  a  quarter  instead  of  a  tenth  of 
his  income  to  Christ,  so  that  one  of  the  things  that 
he  did  with  his  surplus  income  was  to  expend  it  in 
this  unique  manner  of  hiring  four  pews  in  a  church. 
Having  secured  the  pews,  the  next  thing  was  to  fill 
them,  this,  however,  was  not  a  difficult  task.  He 
went  into  the  highways  and  by-ways  and  brought  in 
the  scum  of  the  earth.  Some  of  the  good  aristo- 
cratic church  members  did  not  fancy  this  sort  of 
evangelism,  but  the  minister  was  a  godly  man  and 


62  BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER. 

believed  that  this  young  parishoner  was  on  the  right 
track.  This  work,  however,  was  too  slow  for  this 
Yankee  enthusiast,  he  wanted  to  fill  the  church,  but 
as  that  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  he  must  find  some 
other  method  of  satisfying  his  ambition  for  work. 

He  applied  for  the  position  of  the  teacher  of  one 
of  the  Mission  Sunday-schools,  and  was  informed 
that  the  school  was  well  supplied.  They  said,  how- 
ever, if  he  could  bring  in  his  own  class,  they  would 
certainly  not  object  to  his  teaching  them  and  that 
he  would  be  given  the  best  of  support.  They  inti- 
mated to  him  that  it  was  not  teachers  that  they 
wanted,  but  scholars,  that  it  was  not  much  trouble 
to  find  teachers,  the  trouble  was  to  find  some  one  to 
teach. 

On  the  next  Sunday  the  new  candidate  for  teach- 
er's honors,  appeared  with  a  procession  of  eighteen 
as  ragged,  rowdy,  barefooted  lot  of  young  "hood- 
lums" as  ever  crossed  the  threshold  of  a  place  of 
worship.  He  had  found  his  vocation,  he  was  in  his 
element  and  he  knew  it  at  once.  This  must  be  his 
life  work.  He  became  the  church  recruiting  officer 
in  all  the  missions  and  Sunday-schools  in  the  town. 
He  did  not  neglect  his  business,  that  went  on  the 
same  as  before,  his  energy  seemed  almost  tireless, 
he  worked  hard  all  day  in  his  business  relations  and 
spent  the  evenings  and  Sunday  working  for  souls. 

The  commerce  of  Chicago  in  those  days  was 
largely  transported  by  ships,  and  the  busy  docks 
was  consequently  a  meeting  place  for  the  toughest 
characters,  and  he  was  to  be  seen  in  the  lowest  parts 
of  a  great  city  among  them,  spreading  tracts,  and 
offering  consolation,  many  times  to  be  rebuffed, 
entreating  men  to  give  up  their  vicious  practices 


BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER.  63 

and  turn  their  attention  in  future  to  the  great  truths 
taught  in  the  Scriptures. 

It  was  not  long  before  Mr.  Moody  established  a 
mission  Sunday-school  of^his  own.  He  saw  that  a 
large  territory  on  the  north  side  of  the  river  was  not 
looked  after  by  Christian  people,  so  he  rented  a 
deserted  saloon,  the  only  available  room  to  be  had  at 
that  time,  which  stood  near  the  North  Side  Market. 
The  location  was  admirable  for  his  purpose.  It  was 
surrounded  by  fully  200  saloons  and  gambling  dens, 
and  the  streets,  alleys  and  tenements  swarmed  with 
men,  women  and  children.  His  previous  scout  work 
had  made  him  acquainted  with  the  habits  of  these 
people  and  he  did  not  fear  but  that  he  could  soon 
make  his  school  a  success. 

A  gentleman  who  visited  this  school  in  its  first 
days  described  it  as  being  bare  of  chairs  and  tables, 
most  of  the  scholars  being  obliged  to  stand  up  along 
the  wall.  Mr.  Moody  had  an  old  box  for  a  seat,  and 
his  plan  was  to  group  the  children  around  him,  with 
perhaps  one  on  his  knee,  and  read  to  them  chapters 
from  the  Bible  any  explain  it  according  to  his  light. 
It  was  about  this  time  when  he  began  to  note  his 
own  deficiency  in  education,  and  this  caused  him  to 
call  upon  people  who  were  well  equipped  for  Sunday- 
school  work  to  aid  him. 

One  of  Mr.  Moody's  best  qualifications  for  this 
work  was  his  intense  love  for  children;  he  never 
seemed  happier  than  when  in  the  midst  of  a  jolly 
group  of  youngsters  with  whom  he  could  romp  and 
play  to  his  heart's  content. 

Mr.  Frank  Keefer,  of  Hammond,  Ind. ,  who  was  an 
attendant  at  the  North  Side  Moody  school,  relates 
that  at  one  time   Mr.    Moody  gave  a  picnic  to  his 


64  BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER. 

scholars  out  on  the  Des  Plaines  river ;  the  day  was 
an  ideal  one  in  the  country,  and  everything  was  in 
the  full  beauty  of  life,  while  the  sun  beamed  bright 
and  warm.  He  remembers  that  Mr.  Moody  was 
attired  in  a  long  linen  duster  and  presented  anything 
but  a  distinguished  appearance.  During  the  day 
Mr.  Moody  gave  his  boys  what  he  called  a  treat. 
He  had  secured  several  large  sacks  of  apples  and  he 
went  through  the  crowd  pouring  them  out  to  see 
the  boys  scramble  after  them.  He  highly  enjoyed 
the  performance,  but  when  he  had  finished  he  did 
not  have  much  left  worth  speaking  of  in  the  way  of 
clothes. 

One  of  Mr.  Moody's  plans  was  to  approach  his 
intended  scholars  with  candies,  apples  and  toys,  thus 
gain  their  confidence,  and  finally  get  them  into  the 
school.  When  he  got  them  there  once  he  had  no 
fear  but  that  they  would  return.  Several  men  are 
now  living  who  were  members  of  that  school,  and 
they  state  that  although  at  the  time  they  had  no 
deep  religious  convictions  yet  there  was  something 
about  Mr.  Moody  and  his  methods  that  drew  them  to 
him  and  made  the  Sunday-school  a  desirable  place 
to  go,  although  the  outside  attractions  were  certainly 
very  inducing  in  those  days. 

Thus  early  Mr.  Moody  realized  the  value  of  music, 
and  believed  it  to  be  one  of  the  strong  points 
which  would  hold  his  Mission  school  together.  He 
secured  the  services  of  Mr.  Trudeau,  a  musical 
friend,  and  installed  him  as  chorister.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  school  began  to  grow  to  such  propor- 
tions that  Mr.  Moody  saw  he  must  make  other 
arrangements  to  accommodate  the  crowd.  He, 
therefore,   obtained  permission  of  Mayor  Haines  to 


BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER.  65 

use  the  hall  over  the  old  North  Market.  This  hall 
had  generally  been  used  on  Saturday  nights  for  a 
dance,  and  it  took  most  of  the  forenoon  on  Sunday 
to  sweep  out  the  debris,  such  as  sawdust,  tobacco 
and  beer  stain.  There  were  no  furnishings  in  this 
room,  but  Mr.  Moody  took  it  upon  himself  to  do  the 
financial  work  and  soon  succeeded.  Among  those 
whom  he  called  on  was  Mr.  J.  V.  Farwell,  the  mil- 
lionaire merchant  prince  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Farwell 
succumbed  to  the  blandishments  of  Mr.  Moody  and 
subscribed  money  enough  to  furnish  the  hall.  After 
Mr.  Moody  received  his  subscription  he  asked  Mr. 
Farwell  what  he  was  doing  in  the  way  of  personal 
work  for  Christ.  Mr.  Farwell  told  him,  and  Mr. 
Moody  finding  that  all  his  time  was  not  occupied, 
suggested  that  he  visit  his  Sunday-school  on  the 
next  Sunday.  Mr.  Farwell  did  so  and  was  surprised 
on  his  arrival  there  to  learn  that  Mr.  Moody  had 
nominated  him  as  Superintendent.  He  hesitated 
somewhat  about  accepting  the  office,  but  Mr.  Moody 
insisted,  however,  that  he  should  try  it,  and  he  did, 
and  thus  began  a  friendship  which  lasted  throughout 
Mr.  Moody's  life.  The  school  grew  from  seventy- 
five  scholars  to  200  in  three  months;  there  were  350 
scholars  in  six  months,  and  within  a  year  the  aver- 
age attendance  was  650.  It  was  estimated  that 
fully  2,000  children  passed  through  the  school  a  3^ear. 
Mr.  Moody  not  only  did  scout  work  for  his  Sunday- 
school,  but  in  his  travels  through  the  lowly  districts 
of  Chicago  he  found  many  cases  of  want  and  his 
energies  were  largely  turned  in  the  direction  of 
relieving  the  distress  of  such  people  as  came  under 
his  observation.  In  order  to  do  this  he  had  to  call 
upon  his  friends ;  this  circle  he  extended  wider  and 


66  BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER. 

wider  each  year  until  he  knew  every  prominent 
business  man  in  Chicago,  and  it  has  been  stated  that 
there  was  not  a  single  one  of  them  but  had  contrib- 
uted more  or  less  to  Mr.  Moody's  plans. 

During  these  labors  at  the  North  Market  Street 
Mission  he  attended  to  his  duties  of  a  traveling  sales- 
man. This  made  his  work  much  harder,  because  he 
would  frequently  be  miles  from  Chicago  toward  the 
end  of  the  week,  but  he  had  made  an  arrangement 
with  his  employers  that  he  was  to  spend  his  Sundays 
at  home  and  he  never  allowed  anything  to  interfere 
with  this.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  had 
clear  sailing  in  his  Sunday-school  work.  There  was 
a  strong  Catholic  element  living  on  the  North  Side 
at  that  time  and  among  the  boys  were  numbered  sev- 
eral who  were  certainly  anything  but  saints.  These 
boys  broke  windows  constantly  in  the  old  Market 
Hall,  and  did  other  things  which  annoyed  Mr. 
Moody  very  greatly.  He  knew  it  would  be  of  little 
use  to  expostulate  with  the  boys  and  less  use  to  expos- 
tulate with  their  parents,  and  he  determined  to  go 
to  the  fountain  head  and  see  what  could  be  done. 
He,  therefore,  called  upon  the  Catholic  Bishop  of 
Chicago  and  laid  the  matter  before  him.  The  Bishop 
was  surprised,  of  course,  but  Mr.  Moody  won  him 
over  and  the  Bishop  issued  an  order  which  prevented 
any  further  disturbances. 

After  his  school  had  been  fully  established,  he  de- 
termined to  give  all  his  service  to  Christian  work,  and 
the  manner  in  which  this  was  brought  about  is  told 
in  another  place  in  this  work.  He  made  it  a  prac- 
tice to  speak  to  one  unconverted  man  each  day,  and 
he  has  related  many  instances  of  his  work  in  this 
manner. 


BEGINNING  OF  HIS  CAREER.  67 

On  the  28th  of  August,  1862,  he  entered  into  mar- 
riage with  Miss  Emma  C.  Revell,  .who  still  survives 
him.  She  is  a  sister  of  Fleming  H.  Revell,  the  well 
known  Chicago  publisher.  Two  children  were  born 
of  this  union  while  they  resided  in  Chicago  and  one 
child  after  they  removed  to  Northfield,  all  of  whom 
survive. 

With  his  work  during  the  war,  on  the  Christian 
Commission,  he  found  time,  in  1863,  to  erect  a  large 
building  in  Illinois  Street,  at  a  cost  of  $20,000,  and 
removed  his  mission  and  church  from  the  North 
Market  Hall  to  that  place  when  it  was  completed. 
He  did  not  give  up  his  work  with  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
by  any  means.  He  determined  that  the  Association 
should  have  a  permanent  hall  and  this  he  secured 
for  them.  It  was  known  as  "Farwell  Hall,"  and 
was  dedicated  on  September  29,  1867. 


CHAPTER  V. 


HIS  Y.   M.  C.  A.  WORK. 

Mr.  Moody  was  one  of  the  first  members  of  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Chicago,  in  1858,  when  that  organ- 
ization opened  its  room  at  205  Randolph  street.  He 
continued  his  work,  and,  in  1864,  was  made  a  mem- 
ber of  a  special  committee  for  the  procuring  of 
ground  and  the  erection  of  a  permanent  building. 
As  a  result  of  this  work,  the  first  building  of  the 
Association  was  dedicated  at  148  Madison  street,  in 
1867.  He  was  president  of  the  Association  from 
1865  to  1869.  One  of  the  principal  reasons  ascribed 
for  the  success  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  the  daily 
prayer-meetings  and  the  religious  efforts  growing 
out  of  it.  Mr.  Moody  was  the  leading  spirit,  and 
gathered  round  him  a  band  of  men  who  were  win- 
ners of  souls.  The  very  atmosphere  of  the  rooms 
of  the  Association  was  one  of  prayer  and  praise. 
Although  the  appointments  were  very  modest  and 
plain,  the  spirit  of  those  who  met  in  those  daily  ser- 
vices was  one  of  remarkable  consecration. 

The  good  effected  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  connec- 
tion with  the  United  States  Christian  commission 
during  the  civil  war  was  altogether  incalculable, 
many  of  whom  were  among  the  first  who  responded 
to  the  call  for  75,000  men,  and  from  that  time  to  the 
capture  of  Richmond  the  labor  of  societies  were  un- 

68 


HIS  Y.  M.  C.  A.  WORK.  69 

remitting  to  aid  and  comfort  soldiers  in  camp  and 
on  the  battle-field. 

A  large  chapel  was  erected  in  Chicago  where  there 
was  preaching  and  prayer-meetings  every  day.  The 
hospitals  were  visited  by  regular  agents  who  sup- 
plied all  the  needs  of  the  soldiers  during  sickness 
and  convalescence.  D wight  L.  Moody  was  the  first 
regular  army  agent  of  the  societies. 

Camp  Douglas,  in  Chicago,  was  selected  for  a  mil- 
itary prison  by  the  United  States  authorities,  and 
many  men  who  had  fought  in  the  Confederate  army 
were  brought  there  for  safety.  Mr.  Moody  and  his 
co-workers  saw  in  this  camp,  which  was  tenanted 
alike  by  Union  and  Confederate  forces,  a  need  of 
spiritual  instruction.  He,  therefore,  put  forth  his 
efforts  to  do  all  the  good  he  could  in  the  camp,  and 
held  meetings  there  as  often  as  his  affairs  and  the 
exigencies  of  the  camp  would  permit. 

From  Camp  Douglas  he  went  to  other  camps  of 
the  army,  and  for  years  his  familiar  face  and  pleas- 
ant voice  were  seen  and  heard  in  many  places  where 
blood  ran  in  streams. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  there  was  organized  what 
was  known  as  the  American  Christian  Commission, 
which  held  conventions  in  many  cities  of  the  country, 
among  the  most  notable  of  which  were  the  ones  held 
in  Boston,  Minneapolis,  and  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  in 
1866;  Leavenworth,  Kansas;  Minneapolis,  Pitts- 
burg, and  Grinnell,  Iowa,  in  1867;  St.  Louis,  Phil- 
adelphia, Peoria,  Detroit,  Terre  Haute,  Columbus, 
and  terminating  with  the  great  national  convention 
held  in  Marble  Church,  New  York,  in  1868.  At 
each  of  these  conventions  Mr.  Moody  presided,  and 
was  the  moving  spirit  of  the  meetings.     His  work 


70  HIS  Y.  M.  C.  A.  WORK. 

in  the  Christian  Commission  brought  him  more  than 
local  fame,  but  his  work  in  these  conventions  made 
him  known  to  people  all  over  the  United  States,  and 
the  culmination  was  in  the  New  York  meeting  when 
he  answered  the  questions  and  expounded  his  views 
on  the  Bible  against  Dr.  John  Hall  and  Rev.  Henry 
Ward  Beecher.  In  the  judgment  of  the  contempo- 
rary critics,  he  came  out  with  the  fullest  of  honors. 

At  the  close  of  the  work  of  the  Commission,  he 
came  back  to  Chicago,  occasionally  making  visits 
here,  there  and  elsewhere,  for  the  purpose  of  hold- 
ing revivals.  He  began  to  be  much  sought  after  and 
he  thought  that  perhaps  it  would  be  best  to  give  up 
his  local  work  in  Chicago  and  vicinity,  and  traverse 
more  ground. 

In  a  history  of  the  First  Congregational  Church 
of  Chicago  for  the  quarter-century  ending  in  1876, 
appeared  the  following:  "In  closing  the  records  of 
this  portion  of  our  history  a  brief  word  ought  to  be 
spoken  respecting  the  peculiarly  close  relation  sus- 
tained by  this  church  to  the  evangelistic  work  of  our 
honored  brother,  Dwight  L.  Moody,  Major  T,  W. 
Whittle,  and  P.  P.  Bliss.  It  is  a  matter  of  pardon- 
able pride  that  when  Brother  Moody  was  canvassing 
the  question  of  duty  as  to  his  future  work,  when 
some  ridiculed  his  illiterateness,  were  offended  at 
his  plain,  blunt  way  of  putting  the  gospel  truth; 
when  some  pulpits  were  shut  against  him,  and  some 
Christian  people  were  disposed  to  think  him  a  clown, 
not  to  say  a  fool,  this  church  had,  as  a  whole,  only 
sympathy,  this  pulpit  only  a  welcome  and  a  God- 
speed. And  I  know  that  this  hearty  fellowship  and 
regard  were  most  grateful  and  inspiriting  to  him. 

"The  first  Bible-reading  he  gave  in  this  city,  or 


HIS  Y.   M.  C.  A.  WORK.  71 

gave  anywhere,  as  covering  the  new  method  of  evan- 
gelistic labor  which  was  shaping  itself  before  his 
mind,  he  gave  in  the  lecture-room  of  this  church, 
and  the  work  of  that  series  of  twelve  readings 
greatly  encouraged  this  dear  brother  to  continue  in 
his  chosen  work.  Church  and  pastor  were  one  in 
this.  You  never  found  fault  with  me  for  welcoming 
him  so  heartily  to  this  pulpit.  You  never  sneered 
at  his  broken,  unpolished  utterances,  his  faulty 
grammar.  You  agreed  with  me,  that  taught  in  the 
schools  or  taught  only  in  the  closet,  ordained  by  the 
laying  on  of  men's  hands,  or  ordained  only  by  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  whosoever  he  might  be, 
that  evinces  the  seal  of  God's  approval  on  his  en- 
deavor to  lead  men  to  Christ,  he  should  have  our 
heartiest  fellowship,  our  sincerest  prayers. 

"Brother  Whittle  is  our  rightful  ambassador,  for 
he  was  converted  under  the  ministry  of  this  pulpit. 
Brother  Bliss,  whom  Brother  Moody  feels  to  be  as 
truly  raised  up  of  God  in  his  service  of  gospel  song, 
as  was  Charles  Wesley,  is  still  one  of  our  household, 
and  thank  God  for  this  fellowship.  They  all  pray 
earnestly  for  us  as  we  do  for  them ;  and  may  God 
grant  to  endue  both  them  and  us  with  a  double  por- 
tion of  His  vSpirit,  and  in  the  future  exalt  through 
all  onr  labors,  as  never  before,  the  gospel  of  salva- 
tion through  the  atoning  blood  of  Jesus  Christ." 

In  speaking  of  Moody's  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work,  Rev. 
F.  G.  Ensign,  superintendent  of  the  American 
Sunday-school  Union,  says:  "The  services  of 
Dwight  L.  Moody  in  the  early  days  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  were  of  inestimable 
value,  and  his  influence  has  remained  through  all 
these  later  years  as  a  benediction.  From  1861  to  1870 


72  HIS  Y.  M.  C.  A.  WORK. 

no  man  was  so  constant  and  persistent  in  the  work  as 
was  Mr.  Moody.  He  gave  to  it  the  first  labors  of  his 
early  days,  and  the  ripe  thoughts  of  his  mature 
years.  As  a  well-known  business  man,  in  whose 
store  Mr.  Moody  was  once  employed,  said:  'Mr. 
Moody  would  make  quite  a  good  clerk  if  he  had  not 
so  many  other  things  on  his  hands. '  Those  other 
things  were  the  eternal  interests  of  his  fellow  men, 
and  such  a  spirit  as  his  could  not  be  long  confined 
even  by  the  bounds  that  hold  most  men  to  the 
appointed  desks  by  which  they  earn  their  daily 
bread.  With  an  enthusiasm  which  could  not  be 
dampened,  and  an  energy  which  never  abated,  Mr. 
Moody  pursued  his  arrow- straight  course. 

"What  he  has  done  for  communities  and  nations 
during  these  latter  years,  he  did  for  the  Association 
during  his  early  days.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
estimate  his  usefulness  to  the  Association,  or  to  cat- 
alogue the  details  of  his  successful  work.  The  asso- 
ciation claims  him  as  its  greatest  single  champion 
and  honors  him  for  the  work  that  he  did  while  here 
not  less  than  for  the  work  for  the  world's  evangel- 
ization, which  he  has  since  pursued  with  great  suc- 
cess. It  rejoices  that  one  whose  training  was  in  part 
obtained  in  its  service  should  be  so  manifestly  called 
of  God  to  the  great  work  in  which  he  has  since 
engaged. ' ' 


CHAPTER  VI. 


FIRST  MEETING  WITH  BLISS. 

Mr.  P.  P.  Bliss,  who  is  known  as  the  sweet  singer 
and  great  song- writer,  tells  of  his  first  meeting  with 
Mr.  Moody,  in  1869.  Mr.  Moody  at  that  time  was 
holding  gospel  services  in  Woods'  Museum,  Chi- 
cago, which  stood  near  the  corner  of  Clark  and  Ran- 
dolph Streets.  Previous  to  his  holding  services  in 
the  theater,  he  was  accustomed  to  speaking  in  the 
open  air  from  the  steps  of  the  court  house.  Mr. 
Bliss  said  that  one  Sunday  evening,  accompanied  by 
his  wife,  they  went  out  for  a  walk,  and  passing  up 
Clark  Street,  they  came  to  the  open  air  meeting. 
"I  was  at  once  attracted  by  the  earnestness  of  the 
speaker,  who  was  Mr.  Moody,  and  waiting  until  he 
closed  with  an  earnest  appeal  for  all  to  follow  him 
to  the  theater,  we  decided  we  would  go,  and  fell  in 
with  the  crowd.  I  spent  the  evening  in  his  meeting 
there.  That  night  Mr,  Moody  was  without  his  usual 
leader  for  the  singing,  and  the  music  was  rather 
weak.  From  the  audience  I  helped  what  I  could  on 
the  hymns,  and  attracted  Moody's  attention.  At 
the  close  of  the  meeting,  he  was  at  the  door  shaking 
hands  with  all  who  passed  out,  and  as  I  came  to  him 
he  had  my  name  and  history  in  about  two  minutes, 
and  a  promise  that  when  I  was  in  Chicago  Sunday 
evenings,  I  would  come  and  help  in  the  singing  at 
the  theater  meetings.     This  was  the  commencement 

73 


74  LIFE  OF  P.  P.  BLISS. 

of  our  acquaintance.  I  sang  at  the  theater  meet- 
ings often  after  that,  and  making  longer  stops  in 
Chicago  in  connection  with  writing  music,  I  was 
often  at  the  noon  meeting,  and  was  frequently  made 
use  of  by  Mr.  Moody  in  his  various  gatherings." 

Mr.  Bliss  was  engaged  in  holding  revival  services 
in  different  cities  in  connection  v^^ith  Major  Whittle 
for  several  years  and  was  very  successful.  His 
music  is  still  used  in  Sunday-schools. 

Phillip  Paul  Bliss  was  born  in  Clearfield  County, 
Pa.,  July  9,  1838,  in  the  usual  log  house  occupied 
by  the  English  settlers  of  the  mountain  and  forest 
region  of  northern  Pennsylvania.  In  February, 
1844,  the  family  moved  to  Kinsman,  Trumbull 
County,  Ohio,  where  they  resided  three  years.     In 

1847,  the  family  returned  to  Pennsylvania,  residing 
in  Esterville,  Crawford  County,  and,  in  November, 

1848,  they  removed  to  Tioga  County.  Mr.  Bliss  was 
one  of  sixteen  children,  all  but  two  of  whom  died  in 
infancy.  When  about  ten  years  of  age  he  had  his 
first  piano,  and  he  thought  it  was  the  sweetest  music 
that  had  ever  been  produced.  He  worked  on  a  farm 
in  his  early  days,  that  is,  from  the  time  he  was 
eleven  until  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age.  A  portion 
of  this  time,  however,  he  was  enabled  to  obtain  a 
little  schooling.  He  was  converted  by  a  Baptist 
minister  in  1850,  and  was  immersed  in  a  creek  near 
his  own  home  by  a  minister  of  the  Christian  church, 
who  was  holding  meetings  in  that  neighborhood. 

In  1855,  he  spent  the  winter  in  a  select  school  at 
East  Troy,  Bradford  County,  Pa.  In  1856,  he 
worked  on  a  farm  in  the  summer,  and  taught  school 
in  the  winter  at  Hartsville,  Allegheny  County,  N. 
Y.     The  following  winter  he  passed  at  Towanda, 


LIFE  OF  P.  P.  BLISS.  75 

Pa. ,  and  at  Towner  Hill.  Here  he  met  for  the  first 
time  J.  G.  Towner,  who  was  afterward  associated 
with  him  in  concerting.  The  same  winter  he  at- 
tended the  musical  convention  at  Rome,  Pa.  This 
did  much  to  strengthen  his  growing  passion  for 
music.  In  1858,  he  was  at  Almond,  N.  Y.,  and  in 
the  winter  of  that  year  he  taught  in  the  Rome 
Academy,  at  Rome,  Pa.  He  became  acquainted 
with  O.  F.  Young,  whose  family  were  singers.  He 
fell  in  love  with  the  eldest  daughter,  Lucy,  and,  on 
June  I,  1859,  they  were  married  at  the  little  town  of 
Wysocks ;  the  year  after  his  marriage  he  worked  on 
the  farm  for  his  father-in-law,  and  received  for  his 
support  $13  a  month,  the  amount  usually  paid  to 
farm  hands.  In  the  winter  he  commenced  teaching 
music  at  Bradford  County  for  $2  an  evening  and 
board.  His  first  musical  composition  was  written  in 
1864,  and  published  in  1865  by  Root  &  Cady.  It 
was  called  "Lora  Vale,"  From  1864  to  1876,  for 
twelve  years,  his  pen  was  usually  giving  expression 
to  songs  that  came  thronging  through  his  mind. 
He  was  twenty-six  years  old  when  he  wrote  his  first 
song,  and  thirty-eight  when  he  wrote  his  last. 

His  first  meeting  with  Mr.  Geo.  F.  Root,  of  Chi- 
cago, was  in  1863  or  1864.  When  he  went  to  Illinois 
to  hold  musical  conventions  and  give  concerts,  he 
connected  himself  with  the  musical  publishing  firm 
at  that  time,  and  took  editorial  charge  of  the  "Musi- 
cal Visitor."  Mr.  Bliss  continued  to  hold  revival 
meetings  first  with  the  Rev.  D.  W.  Whittle,  and 
then  with  Mr.  Moody.  Among  his  famous  5ongs 
was  "Hold  the  Fort,  for  I  Am  Coming,"  which  was 
taken  from  the  message  sent  by  General  Sherman 
to  the  command  which  was  holding  Kenesaw  mouu- 


76  LIFE  OF  P.  P.  BLISS. 

tain  during  the  civil  war.  This  was  written  m  1870. 
In  September,  1876,  he  visited  Mr.  Moody  at  North- 
field,  and  spent  a  week  with  him  there.  He  accom- 
panied him  during  that  visit  to  Greenfield,  Brattle- 
boro,  Keene,  and  adjacent  towns,  and  sang  at  the 
meetings  Mr.  Moody  conducted.  In  October  of  that 
same  year,  he  was  present  at  the  Moody  and  Sankey 
opening  service  in  Chicago.  He  did  not  participate 
in  any  of  the  Chicago  meetings  in  a  public  way,  but 
for  three  weeks  was  a  constant  attendant.  On  Octo- 
ber 2ist  he  went  to  Kalamazoo,  his  wife  accompany- 
ing him.  He  sang  at  the  Young  Ladies'  Seminary  at 
the  Baptist  College.  From  the  nth  to  the  21st  of 
November,  1876,  he  was  at  Jackson,  Mich.,  holding 
meetings.  On  the  25th  of  November  he  went  to 
Peoria,  and  held  a  meeting.  On  the  14th  of  De- 
cember the  meeting  was  closed,  and  Mr.  Bliss  went 
to  Chicago.  He  left  on  that  same  evening  for  To- 
wanda,  Pa. ,  where  he  spent  Sunday  with  his  mother, 
and  sister,  Mrs.  Willson.  It  was  his  intention  to 
return  to  Chicago  on  December  31st,  when  he  and  Mr. 
Whittle  were  to  take  up  the  work  in  that  city.  He 
attended  nearly  every  meeting  in  the  little  town 
where  he  was  visiting,  his  last  one  being  on  Wed- 
nesday evening,  December  27th.  He  was  full  of 
the  holy  spirit,  and  sang  with  more  than  usual 
power,  among  the  songs  being  "In  the  Christian 
Home  in  Glory,"  "Hold  Fast  Till  I  Come,"  "Fa- 
ther, I  Am  Tired,"  and  "Eternity."  He  prefaced 
his  remarks  on  the  song,  "Hold  Fast  Till  I  Come," 
by  saying  that  it  was  one  of  the  first  occasions  of  its 
being  sung,  and  it  might  be  the  last  song  he  should 
ever  sing  to  them.  This  seemed  afterward  in  the 
light  of  a  premonition   of  his    approaching    end. 


LIFE  OF  P.  P.  BLISS.  79 

Thursday  morning,  December  28th,  he  took  his  lit- 
tle boys  into  a  room  by  themselves,  and  prayed  with 
them,  and  bade  good-bye  to  all.  His  tickets  read 
to  Chicago  by  the  way  of  Buffalo,  on  the  Lake  Shore 
road.  He  took  the  afternoon  train  at  Waverley, 
and  expected  to  be  in  Buffalo  that  night,  but  the 
engine  of  the  train  on  which  he  was  going  was  de- 
tained three  hours.  Upon  arriving  at  Hornellsville 
late  in  the  evening,  they  decided  to  wait  over  and 
have  a  night's  rest.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bliss  left  there 
Friday  morning,  December  29th,  taking  the  train 
which  connected  at  Buffalo  with  the  Chicago  train, 
wrecked  at  Ashtabula,  Ohio.  There  were  eleven 
cars  on  the  train,  consisting  of  two  engines,  three 
baggage,  one  smoker,  two  coaches,  three  sleepers, 
one  parlor  car — probably  250  on  the  train.  A  blind- 
ing snow  storm  was  raging  when  the  train  pulled 
out  of  Buffalo  an  hour  late.  Just  before  reaching 
the  bridge  at  Ashtabula,  the  snow  was  very  heavy, 
and  the  prospect  was  that  the  train  would  be  snowed 
in.  There  were  two  passenger  cars  in  front  of  the 
smoker,  which  did  not  come  in  the  regular  way,  and 
next  behind  the  smoker  came  the  parlor  car  in  which 
were  Mr.  Bliss  and  his  wife.  When  the  train  fell, 
Mr.  Bliss  succeeded  in  crawling  through  a  window, 
supposing  he  could  pull  his  wife  through  with  him, 
but  she  was  jammed  fast,  and  all  efforts  proved  un- 
available. She  was  caught  in  the  iron  work  of  the 
seats,  and  finding  he  could  not  save  her,  hs  staid 
with  her  in  an  attempt  to  put  out  the  fire  and  rescue 
her,  and  perished  with  her. 

Some  of  his  best  known  pieces  were:  "Hold  the 
Fort,"  "Pull  for  the  Shore,"  "Jesus  Loves  Even 
Me,"  "We  Are  Going  Home  To-morrow,"  "More 


80  LIFE  OF  P.  P.  BLISS. 

to  Follow,"  "The  Light  of  the  World  Is  Jesus," 
"Let  the  Lower  Lights  Be  Burning,"  "Almost 
Persuaded,"  "What  Shall  the  Harvest  Be?"  "Hal- 
lelujah, It  Is  Done." 


CHAPTER  VII. 


SERMONS  ON  P.   P.   BLISS. 

One  of  Mr.  Moody's  most  touching  sermons  was 
that  preached  at  the  Chicago  Tabernacle,  Sunday, 
Dec.  31,  1876,  in  memory  of  P.  P.  Bliss,  who,  with 
his  family,  perished  in  the  Ashtabula  disaster  a  few 
days  previous.  Mr.  Moody's  subject  was  "The 
Return  of  Our  Lord."  He  stood  in  his  place,  and 
with  manifest  trouble  to  keep  back  the  sobs  and 
tears,  he  repeated  those  words  of  David,  "Know  ye 
not  that  there  is  a  prince  and  a  great  man  fallen  in 
Israel."  Then,  almost  unable  to  speak  for  weeping, 
he  said:  "Let  us  lift  up  our  hearts  to  God  in  silent 
prayer."  A  long  period  of  silence  followed,  broken 
by  the  voice  of  a  member  of  the  congregation,  who 
gave  thanks  to  God  for  eternal  life.  The  congrega- 
tion then  joined  in  singing  "In  the  Christian's 
Home  in  Glory  there  remains  a  land  of  rest, ' '  after 
which  Mr.  Moody  arose  and  said : 

"I  was  to  take  up  the  subject  of  our  Lord's 
return,  but  I  cannot  control  my  feelings  so  as  to 
speak  as  I  had  intended.  I  will  take  up  that  sub- 
ject at  another  time.  When  I  heard  last  night  that 
Mr.  Bliss  and  his  whole  family  had  perished,  at  first 
I  could  not  believe  it,  but  a  dispatch  from  a  friend 
who  was  on  the  train  took  away  all  hope  and  left  me 
face  to  face  with  death.     For  the  past  three  months 

81 


82  SERMONS  ON  P.   P.  BLISS. 

I  have  seemed  to  stand  between  the  living  and 
dead,  and  now  I  am  to  stand  in  the  place  of  the 
dead.  Mr.  Whittle  and  Mr.  Bliss  were  announced 
to  hold  the  four-o'clock  meeting  in  the  Tabernacle 
to-day,  and  now  Mr.  Farwell  and  Mr.  Jacobs  and 
Mr.  Whittle,  with  other  friends,  have  gone  to  see  if 
they  can  find  his  remains  to  take  them  away  for 
burial.  I  have  been  looking  over  his  hymns  to  see 
if  I  could  find  one  appropriate  for  the  occasion,  but 
I  find  that  they  are  all  like  himself,  full  of  hope  and 
cheer.  In  all  the  years  I  have  known  and  worked 
with  him,  I  have  never  once  seen  him  cast  down, 
but  here  is  a  hymn  of  his  I  thought  we  might  sing. 

"Once  after  that  wreck  of  the  steamer  at  Cleve- 
land, I  was  speaking  of  the  circumstance  that  the 
lower  lights  were  out,  and  the  next  time  we  met 
he  sang  this  hymn  for  me.  It  is  the  65th  in  our 
collection. 

"Let  us  sing  it  now.  It  begins  'Brightly  beams  our 
Father's  mercy, '  but  still  more  brightly  beams  the 
light  along  the  shore  to  which  he  has  passed.  It 
was  in  the  midst  of  the  terrible  storm'  he  passed 
away,  but  the  lights  which  he  kindled  are  burning 
all  along  the  shore.  He  has  died  young,  only  about 
thirty-eight  years  old,  but  his  hymns  are  sung 
around  the  world.  Only  a  little  while  ago  we  re- 
ceived a  copy  of  these  hymns  translated  into  the 
Chinese  language. 

"In  spite  of  the  mourning  it  is  sweet  to  think  that 
this  whole  family  passed  away  together,  father, 
mother,  Paul,  only  four  years  old,  and  little  George, 
only  two  years  old,  all  gone  home  safe  together. 
There  comes  a  voice  to  us  saying  'Be  still  and 
know  that  I  am  God,'  but  we  know  that  our  Father 


SERMONS  ON  P.   P.   BLISS.  83 

doeth  all  things  well.  My  heart  goes  out  for  his 
mother.  He  was  an  only  son  and  his  mother  was  a 
widow.  Let  us  just  put  up  a  prayer  for  his  mother. 
And  there  was  dear  Mrs.  Bliss  who  was  not  an  inch 
behind  her  husband.  She  taught  him  how  to  pray 
and  encouraged  him  with  his  music.  I  have  often 
heard  him  say,  'All  I  am  I  owe  to  that  dear  wife.* 

"Now  about  that  charge  of  his  singing  for  money. 
The  royalty  on  this  little  book  has  amounted  to 
about  sixty  thousand  dollars,  which  has  been  devoted 
to  charitable  purposes.  I  once  asked  Mr.  Bliss  to 
take  $5,000  for  himself,  telling  him  I  thought  he 
needed  it,  but  he  would  not  take  one  farthing.  Chi- 
cago never  had  a  triier  man.  He  will  be  appreciated 
hundreds  of  years  hence,  like  Charles  Wesley  and 
Doctor  Watts.  He  was  raised  up  to  sing  in  the 
Church  of  God.  God  be  praised  for  such  a  woman ; 
God  be  praised  for  such  a  man." 

On  this  occasion  the  only  collection  ever  taken  in 
the  Tabernacle  was  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Moody 
for  the  erection  of  a  monument  to  Mr.  Bliss,  and  he 
requested  that  as  so  many  would  want  to  contribute, 
that  the  largest  contribution  should  not  exceed 
$1.00. 

That  same  morning  Mr.  Moody  preached  a  sermon 
at  the  Chicago  Avenue  Church,  and  referred  to  the 
work  of  the  church,  which  was  built  in  the  hope 
that  Messrs.  Moody  and  Sankey  would  return  and 
labor  in  Chicago  through  its  means.  Mr.  Moody 
said: 

"It  seems  as  if  God  is  calling  us  to  other  fields, 
and  I  cannot  help  believing  that  if  our  Christian 
frie  ds  will  just  come  together  and  pray  earnestly 
to  God,  that  the  work  will  go  on  just  as  well  without 


84  SERMONS  ON  P.  P.  BLISS. 

us  as  if  we  were  here.  Some  people  get  discouraged 
and  think  the  work  will  not  go  on  because  we  are 
not  coming  back.  That  is  not  the  fact.  Bear  in 
mind  that  God  is  willing  to  labor  through  any  one  in 
the  church  who  will  consecrate  himself  to  His  cause. 
I  cannot  help  believing  that  the  best  days  of  this 
church  are  in  its  future  and  not,  as  some  think,  in 
its  past."  Thinking  of  workers,  Mr,  Moody's 
thoughts  were  drawn  to  Mr.  Bliss,  concerning  whom 
he  said: 

"Why  he  was  so  dear  to  all  of  us  and  why  we 
loved  him  so  much  was  because  he  was  always  cheer- 
ful. We  never  saw  him  discouraged  or  cast  down; 
he  was  all  the  time  singing  about  gladness.  'I  am 
so  glad'  was  the  key  note  of  all  his  songs.  How 
pleasant  it  would  be  if  every  man  and  woman  were 
full  of  the  joy  of  the  Lord  because  He  is  our 
strength. 

"This  being  the  last  day  of  the  year,  I  have  been 
looking  forward  to  it  as  one  of  the  most  solemn  days 
of  the  year,  and  I  had  pi-epared  some  thoughts  to 
bring  out  on  this  occasion.  But  little  did  I  think 
that  it  would  be  as  solemn  as  it  is.  My  thoughts 
have  been  drifted  into  another  channel  entirely.  A 
text  came  into  my  mind  when  I  heard  of  the  sudden 
death  of  Mr.  Bliss  and  his  family.  He  was  coming 
to  the  city  to  fill  an  appointment  here  to-day.  He 
was  to  have  been  with  us  this  morning  and  it  seems 
almost  as  if  I  am  standing  in  the  place  of  the  dead. 
It  is  always  solemn  to  stand  between  the  living  and 
the  dead,  as  a  preacher  does,  but  it  is  always  more 
solemn  to  step  into  dead  men's  shoes,  as  I  feel  I 
have  done  to-day.  The  text  that  occurred  to  me  is 
in  the  24th  chapter  of  Matthew  and  the  43d  verse, 


SERMONS  ON  P.  P.  BLISS.  8S 

'Therefore  be  ye  also  ready. '  Death  often  takes  us 
by  surprise,  but  it  did  not  find  Mr.  Bliss  unprepared. 
He  and  his  wife  had  been  ripening  for  heaven  for 
years,  and  I  have  been  thinking  of  that  family  before 
the  throne  this  morning,  singing  the  sweetest  song 
they  had  ever  sung.  They  should  profit  by  this 
awful  calamity.  God  was  coming  very  near  to  this 
city.  There  was  never  before  such  an  inquiring 
after  God  as  there  is  now,  and  this  last  stroke  of 
Providence  ought  to  be  a  warning  to  every  one 
to  get  in  readiness  to  meet  the  Lord.  It  might  be 
said  that  I  am  taking  advantage  of  this  catastrophe 
and  preaching  for  effect.  If  people  do  not  take  this 
warning,  I  do  not  know  what  will  move  their  hearts. 
There  are  three  things  every  man  and  woman  ought 
to  be  ready  for:  life,  death,  and  judgment.  Life 
is  uncertain ;  no  man  can  tell  at  what  hour  nor  in 
what  manner  death  may  visit  him.  Accidents  like 
the  one  which  occurred  Friday  are  by  no  means  un- 
common and  might  strike  down  any  one  of  us.  It 
therefore  behooves  every  man  to  place  his  trust  in 
Christ,  so  that  he  may  be  prepared  to  meet  Him  at 
any  moment." 

The  Evangelist  was  greatly  moved  during  the 
sermon  and  he  pleaded  earnestly  and  tearfully  that 
the  audience  should  heed  this  terrible  warning  and 
accept  Christ  as  their  Savior.  There  were  few  dry 
eyes  in  the  congregation  when  Mr.  Moody  resumed 
his  seat. 

In  the  afternoon  he  preached  again  in  the  Taber- 
nacle from  the  text,  '  *  Therefore  be  ye  also  ready, ' ' 
which  he  said  had  been  ringing  in  his  head  all 
day.  He  called  upon  those  who  had  heard  him 
preach  for  three  months  to  bear  him  witness  that 


86  SERMONS  ON  P.  P.   BLISS. 

he  had  said  nothing  about  death,  confining  him- 
self to  life,  but  it  might  be  that  before  long  God 
might  lay  him  away  and  send  some  one  to  take  his 
place,  and  he  could  not  forbear  saying  a  word  urg- 
ing on  all  the  necessity  of  regeneration  and  prepara- 
tion. His  voice  was  more  subdued  than  usual,  and 
in  all  he  said  and  all  the  reading  from  the  Scriptures 
it  came  tremulously  and  mingled  with  tears.  He 
spoke  painfully  and  with  difficulty,  the  words  some- 
times utterly  unintelligible. 

"  'Be  ye  therefore  ready.'  Do  not  put  it  ofif. 
There  are  some  who  may  say  I  am  preaching  for 
effect  and  making  use  of  this  good  man's  death  to 
frighten  you."  Satan  might  even  say  that  of  him 
and  say  it  truly.  He  zvas  preaching  for  effect,  and 
he  hoped  the  effect  would  be  to  save  the  soul  of 
every  human  being  before  him.  He  felt  he  must 
warn  them,  and  would  warn  them  of  the  wrath  to 
come  and  the  death  pursuing.  That  death  had  sent 
many  a  warning  during  the  year,  and  now  an  awful 
one  had  come.  Many  of  them  had  looked  down 
upon  the  dead  faces  and  open  graves  of  departed 
friends.  Would  they  not  heed  those  warnings? 
Would  they  not  heed  this  last  warning,  which  might 
be  even  nearer  to  themselves  than  any  before. 
Death  had  taken  them  by  surprise  and  had  taken  Mr. 
Bliss  at  the  very  time  the  speaker  was  writing  out 
the  notice  of  Mr.  Bliss's  appearance  to-day.  He 
and  his  wife  were  snatched  from  life  but  they  were 
ready.  They  might  have  suffered  for  a  few  minutes, 
it  may  be  for  an  hour,  but  when  they  reached  heaven 
there  was  none  in  all  the  celestial  choir  that  sang 
sweeter  or  played  better  on  his  golden  harp  than 
P.  P.   Bliss. 


Copyright,  1900,  by  Robt.  O.  Law. 


P.    P.    BLISS. 


The  "Singing  Evangelist"  and    song-writer,  whose  music  was  used  in  Mr.  Moody's 
meetings  with  wonderful  success. 


SERMONS  ON  P.  P.  BLISS.  89 

"  'Be  ye  therefore  ready:'  no  matter  how  or  when 
a  man  may  die,  if  he  is  only  ready.  Little  did  Mr. 
Bliss  and  his  wife  look  for  what  was  coming  and  it 
seems  to  me  that  no  man  or  woman  should  ever  go 
on  a  railroad  train  again  until  they  have  made  their 
preparation  to  die.  We  may  be  called  upon  to  die 
at  any  time  the  death  of  martyrs.  I  would  rather 
die  like  Stephen  than  die  like  Moses.  I  would  as 
lief  die  like  P.  P.  Bliss  as  die  like  Stephen.  Were 
they  ready?  Those  who  went  on  that  train  saw  the 
the  sun  go  down  for  the  last  time.  Many  in  this 
house  may  have  seen  it  go  down  for  the  last  time  as 
they  came  here.  Are  they  ready?  You  may  fall 
down  and  break  something,  or  you  might  have  dis- 
eases of  the  heart  that  would  carry  you  off  before 
morning.  Are  you  ready?  There  was  no  time  to 
repent  when  they  were  rolling  down  that  bank  into 
that  awful  chaos  and  confusion.  Some  men  were 
dead  before  they  knew  what  had  happened.  God 
help  the  man  who  waited  for  a  catastrophe  before 
he  repented. 

"Look  at  that  young  girl.  She  had  a  deceptive 
cough.  It  was  all  right,  the  doctor  said,  or  would 
be  in  the  spring.  He  said  this  when  he  knew  that 
spring  grasses  and  flowers  would  wave  over  her 
grave.  How  much  lying  is  done  in  sick  chambers 
and  by  death-beds! 

"I  would  rather  have  been  on  that  train  and  taken 
that  awful  leap  and  died  like  P.  P.  Bliss  and  his  wife 
than  have  them  go  as  they  did,  and  every  man 
should  feel  so  who  knows  God  and  is  ready  to  die. 

"O  that  you  might  profit  by  the  calamity!" 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


FIRST  MEETING  WITH  SANKEY. 

Mr.  Moody's  meeting  with  Mr.  Sankey  took  place 
in  June,  1871,  at  Indianapolis.  Both  were  delegates 
to  the  national  convention  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  held  there  at  that  time.  It 
was  at  an  early  prayer-meeting;  the  singing  was 
dull  and  doleful  until  Mr.  Sankey  was  called  for- 
ward to  act  as  leader.  His  sweet  voice  and  fervent 
spirit  at  once  brought  the  bold  evangelist  to  his 
side. 

"Where  do  you  live?"  asked  Mr.  Moody,  bluntly. 

"At  Newcastle,  Pa.,"  was  the  answer. 

"Are  you  married?" 

"Yes," 

"How  many  children  have  you?" 

"One." 

"I  want  you  with  me  to  help  me  in  my  work  in 
Chicago. ' ' 

"I  cannot  leave  my  business." 

"You  must.  I  have  been  looking  for  you  for  the 
last  eight  years ;  you  must  give  up  your  business 
and  come  to  Chicago  with  me. ' ' 

"I  will  think  of  it;  I  will  pray  over  it;  I  will  talk 
it  over  with  my  wife." 

With  painful  reluctance  Mr.  Sankey  severed  the 
associations  so  dear  to  him  at  his  home,  and  in  the 

90 


FIRST  MEETING  WITH  SANKEY.  91 

spirit  of  faith  joined  Mr.  Moody  in  his  vast  labors  as 
an  evangelist  in  Chicago,  and  here  they  worked  to- 
gether in  harmony  and  were  blessed  with  many 
souls  as  their  hire. 

Then  came  the  great  Chicago  fire,  which  not  only 
devastated  Mr.  Moody's  mission  and  home,  but 
almost  the  entire  city.  Mr.  Moody  was  one  of  the  first 
relief  workers.  He  toiled  day  and  night,  forgetful 
of  self,  forgetful  of  everything  except  the  safety  of 
his  family,  and  the  rebuilding  of  a  city  in  which 
had  been  wrought  such  ruin.  One  of  his  first 
thoughts  was  the  rebuilding  of  his  place  of  worship, 
and  when  once  the  thought  was  fixed  in  his  mind, 
it  did  not  take  him  long  to  execute  it.  Even  before 
the  ashes  had  cooled,  and  smoke  was  yet  issuing 
from  the  embers,  Mr.  Moody  began  to  clear  away  a 
placC'  to  erect  his  tabernacle.  His  enterprise 
brought  him  success,  however,  and  his  church  was 
one  of  the  first  rebuilt  in  the  city.  He  was  one  of 
the  persons  entrusted  with  the  relief  funds,  and  had 
a  hand  in  distributing  more  than  $7,000,000. 

Mr.  Sankey  now  rejoined  his  family  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  set  about  singing  in  conventions  again 
until  a  telegram  from  Mr.  Moody,  three  months 
later,  said,  "Come  at  once, "  and  he  returned  to  work 
in  the  new  tabernacle  in  Chicago. 

Ira  David  Sankey  was  born  on  the  28th  of 
August,  1840.  His  birthplace  was  the  village  of  Edin- 
burgh, Lawrence  County,  Pa.  On  the  paternal  side, 
he  came  from  EngUsh  stock,  and  on  the  maternal, 
Scotch-Irish.  His  parents  were  natives  of  Mercer 
County,  and  were  members  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church.  Out  of  their  family  of  nine  children, 
only  three  sons  and  one  daughter  grew  up  to  ma- 


92  FIRST  MEETING  WITH  SANKEY. 

turity.  David,  the  father,  was  well  off  in  worldly 
circumstances,  and  in  such  good  repute  among  his 
neighbors  that  they  repeatedly  elected  him  a  mem- 
ber of  the  state  legislature.  He  was  also  a  licensed 
exhorter  in  his  own  church.  Thus  the  means  and 
the  character  of  this  household  were  such  as  to  in- 
sure ample  advantages  for  culture  in  general  knowl- 
edge and  spiritual  truth. 

Ira,  from  his  childhood,  was  noted  for  his  joyous 
spirit  and  trustful  disposition.  The  sunshiny  face 
that  is  so  attractive  in  his  public  ministry,  has  been 
a  distinguishing  feature  from  early  boyhood,  and 
very  early  won  him  the  praise  of  being  "the  finest 
little  fellow  in  the  neighborhood. ' '  His  father 
states:  "There  was  nothing  very  remarkable  in  his 
early  or  boyhood  history.  The  gift  of  singing  de- 
veloped in  him  at  a  very  early  age.  I  say  gift,  be- 
cause it  was  God-given ;  he  never  took  lessons  from 
anyone,  but  his  taste  for  music  was  such  that  when 
a  small  boy  he  could  make  passable  music  on  almost 
any  kind  of  instrument."  An  old  Scotch  farmer, 
named  Frazer,  early  interested  himself  in  the  little 
lad;  and  of  his  good  influence  Mr.  Sankey  thus 
spoke,  at  a  children's  meeting  held  in  the  town  of 
Dundee,  Scotland:  "The  very  first  recollection  I 
have  of  anything  pertaining  to  religious  life  was  in 
connection  wi^th  him.  I  remember  he  took  me  by 
the  hand,  along  with  his  own  boys,  to  the  Sabbath- 
school — that  old  place  which  I  shall  remember  to  my 
dying  day.  He  was  a  plain  man,  and  I  can  see  him 
standing  up  and  praying  for  the  children.  He  had 
a  great,  warm  heart,  and  the  children  all  loved  him. 
It  was  years  after  that  when  I  was  converted,  but 


FIRST  MEETING  WITH  SANKEY.  93 

my  impressions  were  received  when  I  was  very 
young,  from  that  man." 

Thus  reared  in  a  genial,  religious  atmosphere, 
liked  and  respected  by  all  who  knew  him  and 
accepted  as  a  leader  by  his  boyish  comrades,  Ira 
lived  on  till  past  his  fifteenth  year  before  his  soul 
was  converted  to  Christ.  His  conviction  as  a  sinner 
occurred  while  he  attended  a  series  of  special  serv- 
ices held  in  a  little  church  three  miles  from  his 
home,  and  of  which  Rev.  H.  H.  Moore  was  then 
pastor.  At  first,  he  was  as  gay  as  his  curious  com- 
panions. But  an  earnest  Christian  met  him  each 
evening  with  a  few  soul-searching  words;  and  after 
a  week's  hard  struggle,  he  came  as  a  sinner  to  the 
Savior  and  found  peace  in  acceptance.  Soon  after, 
when  his  father  removed  to  Newcastle  to  assume 
the  presidency  of  the  bank,  Ira  became  a  member 
of  the  Methodist  church,  and  also  a  pupil  at  the  acad- 
emy at  Newcastle. 

This  young  Christian  was  richly  endowed  with  a 
talent  for  singing  spiritual  songs.  His  pure,  beauti- 
ful voice  gave  a  clear  utterance  to  the  emotions  of 
his  sympathetic,  joyous  nature,  and  was  potent  in 
carrying  messages  from  his  heart  to  the  hearts  of 
his  hearers.  It  now  became  his  delight  to  devote 
this  precious  gift  to  the  service  of  his  Lord,  and  it 
was  his  continual  prayer  that  the  Holy  Spirit  would 
bless  the  words  sung  to  the  conversion  of  those  who 
flocked  to  the  services  to  hear  him.  Before  he 
attained  his  majority  he  was  appointed  superintend- 
ent of  the  Sunday-school,  which  contained  above 
three  hundred  scholars;  and  it  was  blessed  with  a 
continual  revival.  His  singing  of  the  gospel  invita- 
tions in  solos  dates  from  this  time.      These  sweet 


94  FIRST  MEETING  WITH  SANKEY. 

hymns  were  sung  in  the  very  spirit  of  prayer,  and 
the  faith  of  the  singer  was  rewared  with  repeated 
blessings.  A  class  of  seventy  Christians  was  com- 
mitted to  his  charge,  and  this  weighty  responsibility 
made  him  a  more  earnest  student  of  the  Holy  Bible. 
He  encouraged  his  class  to  tell  him  of  their  condi- 
tiorh  in  Bible  language,  as  texts  abounded  for  every 
state  of  grace,  and  every  description  of  religious 
feeling.  The  choir  of  the  congregation  also  came 
under  his  leadership.  Young  as  he  was,  he  insisted 
on  conduct  befitting  praise-singers  in  the  House  of 
God,  and  on  a  clear  enunciation  of  each  word  sung. 

These  congenial  religious  duties  were  suspended 
for  a  time  by  a  call  for  defenders  of  the  flag  upon 
the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  Mr.  Sankey  was  among 
the  first  to  volunteer  for  three  months  and  he 
served  out  his  term  of  enlistment.  Even  in  the 
camp,  he  gathered  about  him  a  band  of  singers  and 
was  an  earnest  worker  in  the  prayer  meetings  of  the 
soldiers.  Upon  his  return  home,  he  became  assist- 
ant to  his  father  as  collector  of  internal  revenue  and 
held  that  position  with  credit,  until  his  voluntary 
resignation  nearly  ten  years  later.  He  was  united 
in  mari'iage  on  the  9th  of  September,  1863,  to  Miss 
Edwards,  a  helpful  member  of  his  choir  and  teacher 
in  his  school. 

He  assisted  in  organizing  a  Y.  M.  C.  A. ,  at  New- 
castle, and  was  elected  president,  and  it  was  in  this 
connection  that  he  attended  the  Indianapolis  conven- 
tion as  a  delegate. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


CHARACTER  INDICATORS. 

Mr.  Moody  was  an  exceedingly  heavy  eater.  He 
was  not  capricious,  by  any  means,  as  to  the  quality 
of  his  food,  although  he  appreciated  good  cooking 
as  well  as  anyone  who  had  traveled  as  much  as  he. 
Quantity  was  what  he  wanted,  and  it  made  no 
difference  how  heavy  a  meal  he  ate,  it  never  seemed 
to  bother  him  in  the  least. 

One  of  the  things  which  contributed  to  his  endur- 
ance was  the  fact  that  he  never  got  nervous,  although 
many  times  he  appeared  to  do  so.  He  could  lie 
down  after  a  heavy  meal,-  or  at  the  close  of  a  very 
exhausting  meeting,  and  sleep  the  sleep  of  a  child. 
It  did  not  seem  to  make  any  difference  whether  at 
home,  on  a  railway  train,  in  a  boarding-house,  or  a 
hotel,  he  appeared  to  sleep  as  well  in  one  place  as 
in  the  other. 

He  was  a  bitter  opponent  of  the  church  fair,  and 
other  forms  of  amusement  and  entertainment.  He 
thought  that  a  man  could  get  enough  pleasure  in 
walking,  driving,  conversing  with  people,  or  play- 
ing with  children.  These  were  the  sole  amusements 
in  which  he  indulged,  if  amusements  they  might  be 
called. 

His  memory  was  remarkable.  He  seldom  forgot 
a  face,  and  could  usually  tell  on  the  spur  of  the 


96  CHARACTER    INDICATORS. 

moment  where  he  had  met  some  acquaintance  years 
before.  Many  times  he  would  remember  the  mi- 
nute details  of  the  meeting,  and  recall  incidents  that 
the  acquaintance  had  forgotten.  The  distinguishing 
traits  of  his  memory,  however,  were  centered  on 
the  Bible.  He  could  quote  passage  after  passage, 
chapter  after  chapter.  He  seemed  to  know  the  book 
by  heart,  and  was  seldom  at  fault  in  telling  one 
where  to  find  certain  passages.  It  has  been  said 
that  he  never  forgot  an  anecdote.  He  was  an  ex- 
pert at  handling  every  interesting  phase  of  life  which 
came  under  his  notice.  He  never  tired  his  auditors 
with  useless  explanatory  words.  He  usually  left 
something  of  the  anecdote  for  their  imagination. 
He  had  the  happy  faculty  for  selecting  anecdotes  to 
adorn  his  text,  and  to  fix  a  particular  point  which 
he  wished  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  his  auditors. 
When  one  listened  to  his  sermons,  he  was  reminded 
of  that  peculiar  trait  in  the  character  of  Lincoln, 
which  has  been  so  strongly  brought  out  by  the  his- 
torians. 

Mr.  Moody  was  a  great  admirer  of  Lincoln,  and 
in  the  latter  part  of  i860  or  early  in  1861,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln visited  Chicago,  and  was  importuned  by  Mr. 
Moody  to  visit  his  North  Side  Sunday-school.  Mr. 
Lincoln  complied  with  his  request.  The  Sunday- 
school  building  was  crowded  when  Mr.  Lincoln  ar- 
rived, and  he  was  greeted  with  cheers  by  the  schol- 
ars. Mr.  Moody  insisted  that  Mr.  Lincoln  should 
talk  to  his  boys.  Mr.  Lincoln  wanted  to  know  what 
he  should  talk  about.  Mr.  Moody  said:  ''Any- 
thing you  like. "  Whereupon  the  President  pro- 
ceeded to  instill  in  the  minds  of  his  youthful  audi- 
tors  that   the   greatest  gifts  of  a  nation — that  the 


Copyright,  1900,by  Robt.  O.  Law. 


IRA   D.  SANKEY. 


The  man 'who  accompanied  Mr.   Moody  for  twenty-five  years,  and  was  intimately 
associated  with  him  in  his  best  work. 


CHARACTER    INDICATORS.  99" 

greatest  honors  which  could  be  bestowed  upon  man 
— vrere  open  to  any  American  boy,  who  had  ambi- 
tion, and  who  would  lead  a  proper  course  in  life. 
He  referred  incidentally  to  the  great  struggle  which 
was  then  coming  on  between  the  North  and  South, 
and  tried  to  impress  upon  their  minds  a  reverence 
for  the  flag  and  for  their  countr}'. 

Mr.  Moody  was  quite  an  admirer  of  Garibaldi, 
the  great  Italian  statesman,  and  while  he  did  not 
agree  with  him  in  all  things,  j^et  he  did  admire  his 
enthusiasm.  He  said  he  never  saw  his  name  in  the 
newspapers  or  in  a  book  but  he  read  what  was  said 
about  him.  He  said  he  could  not  help  but  admire 
a  man  whose  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  freedom  was 
stronger  than  his  desire  for  his  own  comfort. 

Mr.  Moody  could  not  sing  a  single  note  and  could 
hardly  distinguish  one  tune  from  another.  He  was 
a  firm  believer  in  music,  however,  in  religious  work, 
as  has  been  shown  in  several  instances  in  this  book, 
and  especially  in  Mr.  Moody's  eulogy  of  Mr.  Bliss. 

ilr.  Moody  was  a  great  believer  in  advertising. 
He  thought  it  should  be  done  judiciously.  He  said 
one  time  that  if  business  men  conducted  their  busi- 
ness in  the  same  manner  as  churches,  they  would 
fail  inside  of  six  months.  He  could  not  see  the  idea 
of  having  millions  of  dollars  locked  up  in  church 
edifices  and  furnishings,  which  were  closed  six  days 
in  the  week.  He  said  he  could  conceive  of  no 
greater  waste  of  capital  He  said  that  almost  the 
only  notice  you  could  find  on  some  churches  was  that 
of  the  undertaker.  He  thought  there  should  be 
bulletin  boards  on  every  church. 

Mr.  Moody  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  idea  that 
people  wonld  instantly  know  each  other  in  heaven. 


100  CHARACTER    INDICATORS. 

He  said  on  one  occasion  that  he  did  not  think  when 
he  got  there  that  he  would  have  any  trouble  in  rec- 
ognizing Paul  or  John  or  Elisha. 

He  expressed  himself  as  being  opposed  to  the  the- 
ater for  various  reasons,  but  among  the  principal 
ones  was  that  they  had  no  regard  for  the  Sabbath ; 
that  it  was  a  place  where  fallen  women  frequented 
and  that  in  the  building  or  near  by  could  always 
be  found  a  saloon.  That  he  did  not  think  it  was 
elevating  to  associate  in  that  connection  with  this 
kind  of  people,  and  for  that  reason  he  believed  that 
one's  time  could  be  better  employed  elsewhere. 

In  speaking  of  Sunday  newspapers,  he  said  that 
one  of  his  friends  one  time  made  an  analysis  of  the 
Sunday  papers  of  New  York.  This  friend  had  been 
advised  that  all  of  the  Sunday  newspapers  published 
sermons  and  that  the  character  of  the  other  matter 
was  such  as  might  be  safely  taken  into  the  home 
and  was  considered  very  elevating  and  entertain- 
ing. This  friend  found  that  a  large  per  cent  of  the 
matter  was  sporting,  murders,  suicides,  divorces, 
fashions,  political,  and  foreign  news,  aggregating 
something  like  nine  himdred  columns,  and  that  the 
religious  news  amounted  to  only  three  and  a  quar- 
ter columns. 

First  impressions  of  the  great  evangelist  were  dis- 
appointing. He  was  neither  of  commanding  height 
nor  striking  form.  He  was  the  appearance  of  the 
substantial,  prosperous  business  man  of  the  world; 
nor  was  the  effect  more  marked  after  he  began  to 
speak.  His  voice,  while  strong  and  pleasant,  had 
none  of  the  magnificent  qualities  possessed  by  Henry 
Ward  Beecher.  He  had  no  polish  of  rhetoric,  nor 
elements  of  diction,  and  yet  the    people  went   in 


CHARACTER    INDICATORS.  101 

crowds  to  hear  him,  and  were  turned  from  the  doors 
at  every  meeting.  Some  no  doubt  came  to  hear  him 
through  curiosity,  others  were  drawn  because  of  the 
interest  in  the  work  he  represented,  but  the  real 
secret  lay  undoubtedly  in  the  man  himself.  He  was 
tremendously  in  earnest.  Rough  in  speech  he  might 
be,  but  he  impressed  you  with  the  sense  that  he  be- 
lieved every  word  that  he  said,  that  he  considered 
his  ideas  of  transcendent  importance.  He  told  plain 
truths  and  did  not  mince  his  words  in  the  telling.  He 
talked  face  to  face  with  ?iis  audiences.  He  had  no 
new  Gospel.  Disciples  of  newer  methods  of  scrip- 
tural interpretation  urged  their  views  upon  him,  but 
he  said  that  he  had  no  time  to  investigate  such 
things.  He  did  not  talk  about  the  terrors  of  hell. 
He  gave  warnings  of  the  consequences  of  evil  deeds, 
encouraging  to  repentance. 

His  success  from  the  beginning  of  his  work  in 
getting  such  money  as  he  needed  for  the  purpose  of 
benevolence  has  been  amazing.  He  understood  the 
secret  of  reaching  the  pockets  of  men  of  wealth. 
'Last  of  all  the  beggar  died  also,'  is  the  epitaph 
which  he  laughingly  said  should  be  inscribed  upon 
his  tombstone. 

He  died  a  poor  man.  Vast  sums  had  been  given 
him  by  people  whose  hearts  were  warmed  by  him 
into  new  life,  but  he  accepted  nothing  for  his  own 
use.  Princely  royalties  received  from  the  sale  of 
the  popular  Moody  and  Sankey  Hymn-books  have 
all  been  used  in  the  support  of  his  public  work. 
Not  a  penny  had  been  expended  upon  himself. 
There  isn't  a  good  photograph  of  him  in  existence. 
He  would  not  permit  them  to  be  taken,  lest  some 
should  accuse  him  of  using  the  proceeds  of  their  sales 


102  CHARACTER    INDICATORS. 

for  private  gain.  He  was  careful  to  avoid  every 
appearance  of  questionableness.  He  inspired  abso- 
lute confidence  in  the  integrity  of  his  manhood. 

A  writer,  in  describing  the  meetings  at  the  Hip- 
podrome, New  York,  which  stood  on  the  ground 
where  the  Madison  Square  Garden  now  stands,  in 
1876,  says  of  Mr.  Moody: 

"He  is  a  man  of  another  and  different  class  from 
Mr.  Sankey.  Tall,  stalwart,  squarely,  massively 
built.  At  first  the  physique  and  general  appearance 
of  the  man  seem  heavy.  The  head  is  attached  to 
the  body  by  a  short  neck.  The  forehead  is  rather 
broad  than  high.  The  nose  is  not  classical,  nor  are 
the  eyes  large  or  lustrous,  but  the  whole  man  is 
illustrative  of  strength  and  thoroughness  and  seems 
to  have  untold  source  of  will  and  determination  to 
draw  upon.  Mr.  Moody's  features  have  been  some- 
what etherealized  in  the  engravings,  and  none  we 
have  yet  seen  resemble  him.  The  head  recalls 
slightly  the  Socratic  lineaments,  and  Socrates  had 
not  a  classical  face.  There  is  nothing  ascetic  in  Mr. 
Moody's  appearance,  for  it  is  blunt  and  hardy.  He 
wears  a  long,  flowing  beard,  and  a  heavy  moustache, 
which  partly  hide  any  emotional  expressions.  His 
voice  has  its  peculiarities.  Naturally  it  must  have 
been  what  teachers  of  declamation  call  'an  impos- 
sible voice,'  but  by  dint  of  training  it  accomplishes 
its  purpose  admirably.  It  can  be  heard  anywhere 
in  the  largest  hall.  If  there  is  no  grace  in  Mr. 
Moody,  there  is  no  awkwardness,  the  gestures  are 
sober.  He  never  thumps  nor  bangs  nor  forges  out 
the  text  on  imaginary  anvils. ' ' 

When  John  Wesley  felt  with  grief  that  Whitfield 
was  drawing  souls  from  his  church,  the  grand  old 


CHARACTER    INDICATORS.  103 

man  said:  "Do  men  gather  from  his  amorous  way 
of  praying  to  Christ  or  that  luscious  way  of  preach- 
ing his  righteousness  in  real  holiness?" 

Mr.  Moody's  manner  is  heartless.  It  is  not  always 
that  he  is  at  the  highest  point  of  tension.  There 
are  lots  of  shadows  in  his  preaching.  The  accu- 
mulative power  which  puts  him  in  close  connection 
with  the  thousands,  and  which  imbues  them  with  the 
hold  feeling,  is  not  always  foreseen,  and  for  that 
very  reason  is  all  the  more  impressive.  It  may  be 
that  the  first  text  chosen  by  him,  which  as  a  scrip- 
tural trellis  his  tree  is  to  grow  on,  is  too  scant  and 
restrictive.  Incidentally  he  supplements  this  text 
with  new  ones,  and  the  inspiration  comes.  Then 
suddenly  issues  forth  a  new  growth,  which  bears 
both  its  flowers  and  fruits. 

Rev.  H.  W.  Webb-Peploe,  D.  D.,  Vicar  of  St. 
Paul's,  Onslow  Square  and  Prebendary,  and  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  London,  in  writing  to  a  religious 
journal  in  August,  1896,  of  the  great  Evangelist, 
said :  ' '  Mr.  Moody's  work  whether  at  home  or  abroad 
has  been  up-reared  upon  three  foundations,  which 
if  anything  can  make  a  human  work  indestructible 
will  certainly  guarantee  the  after  results  of  his  toil. 

"First:  Every  stone  has  been  laid  upon  the  solid 
basis  of  prayer;  God's  grace,  God's  gardens  and 
God's  glory  have  been  sought  without  ceasing,  and 
before  another  step  has  been  taken,  whether  at 
Northfield  or  Chicago,  it  has  been  made  as  certain 
as  prayer,  and  its  wonderful  answers  can  make  it, 
that  the  faith  of  the  Almighty  was  upon  the  under- 
taking. Let  those  who  will  scoff  at  the  power  of 
prayer,  Dwight  L.  Moody  and  his  work  are  magnifi- 
cent testimonies  to  all  who  have  the  humility  and 


104  CHARACTER   INDICATORS. 

the  will  to  be  convinced  that  God  is,  indeed,  a 
prayer-answering  God,  and  that  they  who  put  their 
trust  in  him  shall  never  lack  for  wisdom  or  for  sup- 
plies. The  first  power  in  Northfield  is  the  power 
of  prayer. 

"  Second :  Upon  every  soul  with  whom  Mr.  Moody 
has  had  to  deal,  he  has  unceasingly  and  with  coura- 
geous determination  impressed  his  simple  scriptural 
capacity,  which,  tells  of  the  infinite  love  of  God,  of 
the  perfect  atonement  wrought  for  sin,  of  the  death 
of  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  absolute  knowledge  of 
the  new  birth  by  the  Spirit,  and  of  the  wondrous 
power  of  that  Holy  Spirit  to  sanctify  all  who  receive 
him  into  their  souls. 

"There  is  no  uncertainty  about  Dwight  L.  Moody's 
evangelism,  and  while  Mr.  Sankey  and  others 
should  be  never  forgotten,  but  honored  and  rejoiced 
over  as  God's  power  and  song,  and  while  multitudes 
hold  to  the  sweet  singer  a  debt  of  infinite  gratitude, 
it  is  quite  certain  that  the  rock  upon  which  all 
the  educational  and  evangelistic  results  of  these 
brethren  have  been  based,  is  that  solid  rock  of  the 
atonement  or  gospel  of  substitution  so  freely 
announced  by  Mr.  Moody  and  his  co-workers, 
whether  as  preachers  or  singers  of  the  gospel. 

''But  not  only  has  the  divine  aid  been  sought  and 
the  divine  council  been  declared  at  every  step  of 
Mr.  Moody's  work,  but  we  must  if  we  would  learn 
the  real  secret  of  its  success,  notice  that. 

"Third:  The  Divine  Being  has  in  everything  and 
at  all  times  been  acknowledged  as  the  author  or 
giver  of  all  good  gifts,  wisdom  and  money,  power 
and  success.     'The  Lord  for  whose  glory  every  step 


CHARACTER    INDICATORS.  105 

must  be  taken,  and  as  the  Master  to  whose  guidance 
every  detail  must  be  submitted. '  ' ' 

At  Northfield  no  man  is  allowed  to  glory  in  men. 
The  work  is  the  Lord's.  He  must  rule  at  all  points 
and  receive  the  full  honor  for  all  that  succeeds. 
Mr.  Moody  would  be  the  first  to  acknowledge  that 
he  owes  an  incalculable  debt  to  his  mother  and  to 
his  wife,  who  have  so  long  been  the  blessing  home 
spirits  of  his  life.  In  Mr.  Moody's  children  the 
father  has  living  monuments  of  his  wisdom  and 
power  iri  the  home.  And  yet  not  for  one  moment 
either  in  Northfield  or  Chicago  is  any  ruler  acknowl- 
edged or  spoken  of  but  Jehovah.  These  are  the 
secrets  or  grounds  of  the  success  which  God  has  so 
generously  given  to  his  servant. 

Mr.  James  H.  Whiton,  in  August,  1896,  said  of 
Mr.  Moody:  "Mr.  Moody  ranks  as  high  in  the 
qualities  of  insight,  prominence  and  energy,  which 
make  great  administrators  of  business,  as  in  those 
who  make  a  successful  evangelist.  And  these  he 
gave  a  splendid  administration  in  the  organizing, 
financing  and  direction  of  the  six  months'  evan- 
gelistic campaign  in  Chicago  during  the  World's 
Fair,  and  yet  no  man  ever  had  a  more  humble 
estimate  of  himself.  If  he  can  get  others  to 
speak,  he  prefers  to  listen.  He  values  the  printed 
page  also,  and  has  been  busy  with  his  pen  in  produc- 
ing quite  a  library  of  books  or  documents,  some  two 
dozen  in  all,  some  of  which  have  been  sold  far 
above  100,000  copies.  What  General  Booth's  books 
are  to  his  army,  these  are  for  the  masses  Mr.  Moody 
has  inspired.  Some  of  them  have  been  translated 
into  Swedish,  German  and  Danish-Norwegian.  Nor 
are  they  allowed  to  wait  for  buyers.     He  has  organ- 


106  CHARACTER    INDICATORS. 

ized  a  colportage  association  to  spread  the  sale  of 
these  and  similar  books.  The  profits  support  the 
workers  in  their  work.  One  book  in  the  list  is 
especially  characteristic  of  the  man,  the  Northfield 
edition  of  Bagster's  Bible,  especially  prepared 
according  to  Mr.  Moody's  suggestion,  for  the  use  of 
his  students. 

Rev.  W.  C.  Gannett,  in  an  address  before  the 
Free  Religious  Society  of  Providence,  R.  I.,  in  1877, 
said  of  Mr.  Moody : 

"I  think  the  way  to  look  at  Moody  and  his  work 
is  somewhat  in  this  wise :  Here  is  a  great  religious 
phenomenon.  We  study  the  phases  of  history  in 
religion.  We  watch  in  the  lands  of  the  present  the 
Indian  with  his  totems,  the  Buddhist  at  his  shrine, 
the  Mohammedan  on  his  praying-carpet  in  the  des- 
ert, the  Roman  Catholic  before  his  ribboned  and 
jeweled  Virgin,  the  Presbyterian  with  his  Sunday 
face — it  is  a  family  history.  They  are  all  our  ances- 
toi's  or  cousins.  But  here  is  something  wondrous  in 
religious  happenings  in  our  day  and  in  our  midst. 
We  need  not  travel  far  in  time  or  in  space  to  watch 
it.  Two  men  have  been  going  through  the  capitals 
of  the  highest  English-speaking  civilization.  Wher- 
ever they  come,  the  crowd  gathers  before  their  lips, 
and  light  hearts  grow  heavy  and  then  light  again 
with  a  new  kind  of  joy,  and  many  a  selfish  life  grows 
earnest  for  the  time,  at  least,  and  many  a  drunkard 
gives  up  drinking  and  struggles  as  he  never  strug- 
gled yet  before  he  falls  again. 

"In  Boston,  twice  or  thrice  a  day,  four  and  five 
and  six  thousand  people  fill  a  vast  building  to  hear 
them.  What  go  they  out  to  see?  A  man  big-bod- 
ied, short-necked,  heavy- faced,  harsh- voiced,  of  no 


CHARACTER    INDICATORS.  107 

culture,  such  as  colleges  and  books  supply,  poor  in 
grammar,  poorer  in  pronunciation,  and  poverty  is 
not  the  word  to  describe  his  lack  of  grace  in  manner. 
But  here  is  the  fact — six  thousand  people,  men  and 
women,  old  and  young,  life-tired  and  life-jubilant 
people,  come  twice  a  day  to  hear  him.  The  edu- 
cated ministers,  their  usual  teachers,  are  his  serv- 
ants. He  says  to  this  man  'Speak,'  and  he  speak- 
eth ;  to  that  man  'Pray,'  and  he  prayeth.  Here  is 
something  not  to  be  ignored  or  pooh-poohed  away. 
Can  it  be  explained? 

"The  man  strikes  straight  for  your  conscience,  and 
he  deals  with  certain  universal  forms  about  the  con- 
science. Not  all  men  carry  ideas,  not  all  men  carry 
feelings  which  can  be  moved  by  a  word  said  to  them 
in  common ;  but  every  man  who  goes  to  the  Taber- 
nacle carries  a  conscience,  and  knows  what  Moody 
means  when  he  says  straightforwardly:  'You  are  a 
sinner;  you  need  cure;  you  feel  mighty  little  power 
to  cure  yourself ;  there  is  a  power  that  can  cure  you ; 
lay  hold  of  it — here  it  is,  and  be  well.'  And  Mr. 
Moody  cannot  philosophize  about  this  matter — sin; 
he  hardly  tries  to — is  the  last  man  to  succeed  if  he 
tried.  Neither  can  his  audience  philosophize  about 
it.  But  that  inability  helps,  not  hinders,  the  effect. 
That  saves  time,  and  keeps  the  aim  to  the  target. 
There  is  a  clear  track  between  his  lips  and  your 
conscience.  He  knows  what  he  is  talking  about, 
and  you  know,  too,  be  the  doctrine  what  it  may. 

"Another  secret  is  an  open  secret.  He  preaches 
in  pictures  and  stories.  A  sermon  of  his  is  a  cabi- 
net of  anecdotes,  is  a  little  picture  gallery.  He 
states  his  point  in  a  few  words,  and  then,  instead  of 
moralizing  over  it,  he  says:  'I  remember  a  man  in 


108  CHARACTER   INDICATORS. 

Glasgow, '  and  everybody  listens  to  find  out  about 
that  Glasgow  man.  And  when  he  is  through  with 
him  the  Chicago  man  is  ready,  and  when  he  is  dis- 
missed, you  have  Mr.  Moody's  point  vividly  etched 
on  your  mind  ready  to  be  carried  away  in  memory. 
His  anecdotes  are  anecdotes  of  the  conscience,  gath- 
ered in  his  long  experiences,  most  of  them  moulded 
by  truth  into  telling  shapes.  Not  all,  however. 
Some  of  them  are  very  wooden  yet,  and  sometimes 
they  act  like  boomerangs,  and  lay  the  teaching  flat. 
But  he  can  take  a  little  Bible  incident,  and  fill  in 
and  fill  in  with  details,  until  you  have  a  special  cor- 
respondent's photograph  instead  of  two  or  three 
Bible  verses.  And  this,  till  there  is  too  much  of  it, 
is  fascinating,  and  many  people  can  stand  a  great 
deal  of  it.  It  is  Sunday-school  talk,  and  we  all  like 
to  be  treated  as  children  in  this  way.  In  the  best 
bred  Temple  as  well  as  in  the  rough  and  ready  Tab- 
ernacle the  anecdote  is  often  the  liveliest  part  of 
the  sermon.  If  I  should  begin  right  here,  'I  re- 
member a  man, '  you  would  all  look  up,  and  I  should 
have  you  as  long  as  I  held  on  to  him.  Now,  Mr. 
Moody  never  lets  him  go  beyond  arm's  length,  and 
as  a  consequence,  everything  he  says  is  personal- 
ized, living,  dramatic,  easy  to  understand,  hard  to 
forget. 

"Is  not  that  self-surrender  the  supreme  necessity 
of  here  and  now,  if  you  have  never  made  it?  And 
is  it  not  'new  birth'  when  made?  And  is  it  not  an 
interior  act  that  does  precede  all  outward  deeds? 
And  in  that  inward  struggle  between  the  higher 
and  the  lower  self,  that  wrestle  between  a  conscience 
and  the  lawful  right,  that  knowledge  that  now  and 
here  it  must  be  settled.     If  you  go  off  from  that 


CHARACTER    INDICATORS.  109 

moment  of  clear  conviction  without  the  self-surren- 
der to  the  Highest,  goes  not  your  soul  towards  sui- 
cide? And  when,  by  the  surrender  you  get  upon 
God's  side,  feel  you  not  as  if  His  entire  Almightiness 
were  pledged  to  give  you  strength  henceforth  as  his 
co-worker?  These  are  only  facts  that  you  and  I 
ought  to  be  able  to  recognize  under  any  symbol. 
The  poor  drunkard,  the  light-living  woman,  the 
selfish  husband,  the  thieving  merchant,  the  restless- 
hearted  boy  or  girl,  know  what  he  means.  They 
know  very  well  that  his 'Come  to  Jesus, '  whatever 
else  it  means,  means  consecration  to  a  new  and  bet- 
ter life,  that  to  believe  in  Him,  to  accept  Him,  means 
a  turning  about — conversion. 

"They  are  not  utter  fools.  It  is  not  a  pantomime 
of  private  theatricals — it  is  a  conscience  wrestling 
with  the  living  God.  And  shall  we  laugh  or  cavil 
at  the  symbol?  You  do  not  laugh  at  the  idea  of  con- 
secration to  the  highest  right  you  know?  No,  your 
heart  leaps  and  aches  at  the  thought,  your  cheeks 
flush  with  the  yearning  to  do  that  heroism,  your 
tongue  has  no  ha!  ha!  for  that;  but  that  is  what 
your  Evangelical  neighbor  called  'Coming  to  Jesus. ' 
Are  you  going  to  call  it  cant?  His  symbol  serves 
him  as  yours  serves  you.  Honor  your  own  in  hon- 
oring his.  Do  I  idealize  Mr.  Moody  and  his  con- 
verts by  these  words?  They  do  not  consciously 
mean  anything  so  intensely  moral  as  this — I  hear 
some  one  protest.  The  consecration  that  you  make 
centrally  in  the  'Come  to  Jesus'  may  be  these,  in- 
deed, but  it  is  the  incentive  rather  than  the  central 
thing.  The  central  thing  with  them  is  not  charac- 
ter, but  salvation,  that  imputed  righteousness  that 
buys  off  their  punishment  for  sin,  that  indulgence 


110  CHARACTER    INDICATORS. 

element  of  which  the  Roman  Catholic  indulgence  is 
only  a  lower  form.  I  doubt  not  that  it  is  so  with 
some,  and  that  with  still  more — with  very  many, 
although  they  fully  mean  a  find  of  consecration, 
and  only  sing — 

'Till  to  Jesus'  work  you  cling, 
Doing  is  a  deadly  thing.' 

That  streets  tend  to  make  them  feel  that  doing  is  a 
comparatively  indifferent  thing,  after  they  cling  to 
Him;  in  short,  that  the  'symbol'  like  idols  every- 
where, often  gets  the  worship  away  from  the  inner 
moral  meaning.  AVithout  abatement  of  this  kind, 
I  frankly  own  is  exaggeration  in  the  way  I  have  put 
the  matter.  But  I  believe  that  truer  estimate  of  a 
movement  like  the  revival  is  gotten  by  making  an 
abatement  from  this  way  and  looking  at  it,  rather 
than  by  approaching  it  in  the  opposite  spirit  and 
with  a  little  pity  to  abate  our  scorn.  It  is  very  easy 
to  pick  out  many  a  bit  from  Mr.  Moody's  talk  that 
seems  to  contradict  all  this.  'The  Greatest  Sin  of 
the  world  is  unbelief. '  '  If  I  read  my  Bible  right  there 
is  no  hope  out  of  Christ,'  and  so  on.  But  these  are 
to  be  interpreted  by  his  prevailing  method,  not  that 
by  these. 

"That  he  confounds  his  symbol  with  his  substance 
utterly,  that  the  two  are  one  to  him — is  that  any 
reason  why  we  should  make  the  same  mistake? 
And  he  would  laugh  about  all  this  talk  about  sym- 
bols, nor  understand  a  word  of  it.  But  get  him  to 
tell  you  what  he  means  by  'belief  and  'out  of 
Christ, '  and  in  two  minutes  you  will  probably  find 
him  deep  in  the  morality,  spite  of  himself,  or  rather, 
because  of  himself,  for  that  is  what  his  Christology 
is  in  his  heart  of  hearts. 


CHARACTER    INDICATORS.  Ill 

"Can  I  not  be  large-natured  enough  and  trust  my 
nature  enough  to  entertain  them  all  in  my  own  soul, 
and  say  to  each  with  infinite  sincerity,  Brother?  The 
man  or  the  party  who  does  this  most  heartily  and 
fully  is  thereby  fitted  best  to  make  his  own  light 
shine.  The  only  excuse  for  warning  another  man 
to  give  up  his  thoughts  and  take  on  ours  is  our  belief 
that  ours  will  bless  him  more — excuse,  indeed,  to 
furnish  missions  and  enthusiasm.  The  most  of  us 
are  so  eagerly  unselfish  in  our  proselyting  that  we 
call  hard  names  and  feel  bitter  against  him  if  he 
does  not  accept  our  friendly  offer.  Let  us  rather  fall 
back  on  our  unity  with  him,  make  our  own  light 
shine  the  better  and  wait. 

"Best  of  all  methods  to  recommend  an  unpopular 
faith  to  acceptance  is  being  brave  in  thought,  yet 
broad  in  sympathies.  Not  visibly  brave  and  invis- 
ibly broad,  as  some  are  apt  to  be.  Not  visibly  broad 
and  invisibly  brave,  like  certain  other  friends,  but 
brave,  so  that  men  will  say  'He  is  a  radical' ;  broad, 
so  that  men  shall  add:  'He  is  reverent,'  and  by 
being  so  religious  in  actual  life  that,  as  far  as  one  is 
known,  men  and  women  shall  be  confronted  by  a 
living  proof  that  what  they  may  call  'infidelity'  is  at 
least  fidelity  to  high  morality  and  widely  active 
unselfishness.  Live  up  to  the  motto, 'Freedom  with 
Fellowship  in  Religion, '  and  then  within  some  hum- 
ble sphere,  we  cannot  help  being  its  missionary,  for 
as  we  go  our  whole  bearing  will  preach  it — it,  the 
Freedom  with  the  Fellowship." 


CHAPTER  X. 


THEIR  ENGLISH  VISIT. 

After  the  Chicago  lire,  Mr.  Moody  received  what 
he  termed  a  "call  from  on  High"  to  visit  England. 
So,  in  1873,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Sankey  and  their 
respective  families,  they  arrived  in  Liverpool.  Mr. 
bloody  had  previously  received  two  invitations  from 
London  clergymen  to  come  and  hold  meetings 
in  that  city,  and  it  was  with  this  in  view  that  he 
made  the  trip.  On  his  arrival  in  England,  what 
was  his  surprise  to  learn  that  both  ministers  were 
dead.  The  evangelists  had  taken  but  a  small 
amount  of  money  with  them,  and  they  were  conse- 
quently about  stranded.  Mr.  Moody's  financial 
genii,  however,  came  to  his  aid,  and  he  at  once  issued 
an  edition  of  song  books,  which  brought  them  in 
sufficient  money  to  pay  their  expenses,  and  became  a 
wonderful  success  from  the  start,  man}-  thousands 
of  copies  being  sold  and  much  revenue  being 
derived  therefrom.  Mr.  Moody  remembered  that 
he  had  had  some  correspondence  with  a  minister  at 
York.  He  wrote  to  that  gentleman  of  his  arrival 
in  London,  and  of  his  disappointment  in  not  finding 
the  two  friends  he  had  come  to  see,  and  suggested 
that  it  might  be  well  to  start  the  meetings  at  York. 
The  York  minister  replied  that  he  did  not  think  the 
time  propitious  for  a  re^^val,  but  this  did  not  pre- 
vent Mr.   Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey  from  going  there. 

112 


THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT.  113 

Their  reception  was  not  the  most  cordial.  Their 
methods  of  advertising  were  so  new  and  different 
from  what  the  conservative  English  church  people 
had  been  used  to,  that  they  were  looked  upon  with 
suspicion.  They  advertised  their  meetings  in  the 
daily  press,  and  placed  large  posters  on  the  dead 
walls. 

At  the  first  prayer-meeting,  held  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing in  a  small  room  of  the  Association  building,  only 
four  persons  were  present;  and  Mr.  Moody  has  char- 
acterized that  as  the  best  service  he  ever  attended. 
The  clergy  looked  coldly  on  the  evangelists  as 
intruders,  and  most  of  the  churches  were  closed  to 
them.  They  labored  on  bravely  against  these  dis- 
couragements for  a  month,  and  were  comforted  by 
seeing  above  two  hundred  converts  to  Christ.  Their 
work  at  Sunderland  began  on  Sunday,  July  27th,  at 
the  invitation  of  a  Baptist  pastor.  The  ministers 
still  held  aloof,  and  even  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  eyed  them  suspiciously  for  a  week  before 
offering  the  hand  of  fellowship.  But  the  meetings 
steadily  waxed  larger. 

The  evangelists  were  invited  to  Newcastle-on-the- 
Tyne  by  the  chief  ministers  of  that  town,  and  were 
heartily  sustained  by  the  leaders  of  the  congrega- 
tions. And  now  Mr.  Moody  confessed  his  hope. 
"We  are  on  the  eve  of  a  great  revival  which  may 
cover  Great  Britain,  and  perhaps  make  itself  felt  in 
America.  And  why  may  not  the  fire  bum  as  long 
as  I  live?  When  this  revival  spirit  dies,  may  I  die 
with  it."  His  prophetic  words  met  an  immediate 
fulfillment.  All  the  meetings  were  thronged  with 
attentive  listeners,  and  as  many  as  thirty- four  ser- 
vices were  held  in  a  single  week.     A  noonday  prayer 


114  THEIR    ENGLISH  VISIT. 

meeting  was  organized,  while  special  efforts  were 
made  to  reach  the  factory  hands  and  business  men. 
An  all-day  meeting  was  held  on  September  loth, 
wherein  seventeen  hundred  participated.  One  hour 
was  spent  in  Bible  reading,  another  on  the  promises, 
and  the  last  in  an  examination  of  what  the  Scriptures 
teach  concerning  Heaven.  The  town  was  wonder- 
fully awakened,  and  every  night  sinners  were  drawn 
to  the  uplifted  Savior. 

Edinburgh  was  prepared  for  the  manifestation  of 
a  signal  blessing  by  a  series  of  union  prayer-meet- 
ings held  in  October  and  November,  which  softened 
and  unified  the  hearts  of  Christians  of  various 
names.  Hence  it  was  that  the  evangelists  were  wel- 
comed in  such  a  spirit  of  sympathy  that  captious 
criticism  was  unthought  of.  The  ministry  of  song 
was  an  unheard-of  innovation.  Yet  the  rooted  aver- 
sion of  the  Scottish  people  to  the  singing  of  aught 
but  psalms,  gave  way  quickly  to  the  evident  testi- 
mony of  the  Spirit. to  the  spirituality  of  his  messages 
and  the  tenderness  of  his  voice.  On  the  first  day, 
Sunday,  November  23d,  the  Music  Hall  was  thronged 
with  two  thousand  auditors,  and  many  more  were 
excluded.  Five  hundred  met  at  noon  on  Monday 
for  prayer,  and  that  attendance  was  soon  doubled. 
Meetings  for  inquirers  was  held  after  each  service. 
Three  hundred  in  the  first  week  confessed  their 
sins  had  been  forgiven.  Their  ages  ranged  from 
seventy-five  to  eleven.  Students  and  soldiers,  poor 
and  rich,  the  backsliding,  intemperate,  and  skep- 
tical, were  all  represented.  The  largest  halls  were 
found  to  be  too  small  to  accommodate  the  eager  audi- 
ences. A  striking  case  of  conversion  was  that  of  a 
notorious  infidel,   the  chairman  of  a  club  of  free- 


Copyright,  1900,  by  Robt.  O.  Law. 

MR.  MOODY'S    CHARACTERISTIC    ATTITUDE. 
This  was  a  favorite'gesture  of  Mr.  Moody  when  making  a  telling  scriptural  point. 


THEIR    ENGLISH  VISIT.  117 

thinkers.  He  declared  his  utter  disbelief  in  the 
value  of  prayer,  and  defied  Mr.  Moody  to  test  its 
power  on  him.  The  evangelist  accepted  the  chal- 
lenge in  faith,  and  remembered  him  continually  in 
his  petitions  till  he  heard  of  his  finding  Christ, 
months  afterward.  An  impressive  watch-meeting 
was  held  on  the  last  night  of  the  year  1873,  and  a 
special  blessing  was  besought  for  the  British  people. 
The  week  of  prayer,  from  the  4th  to  the  nth  of 
January,  1874,  was  observed  throughout  all  Scotland, 
as  a  season  of  united  prayer  for  invoking  the  Lord 
to  visit  the  nation,  and  the  entire  world  in  mercy. 
The  most  remarkable  feature  of  this  revival  has 
been  described  as  "the  presence  and  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  solemn  awe,  the  prayerful,  believ- 
ing, expectant  spirit,  the  anxious  inquiry  of  unsaved 
souls,  and  the  longing  of  believers  to  grow  more  like 
Christ — their  hungering  and  thirsting  after  holi- 
ness." Similar  characteristics  have  marked  the 
advent  of  these  yoke-fellows  in  every  community. 
Vhis  mission  in  Edinburgh,  which  lasted  till  the  21st 
of  January,  1874,  resulted  in  adding  three  thousand 
to  the  city  chiM*ches. 

At  Dundee,  meetings  were  held  in  the  open  air, 
at  which  from  ten  to  sixteen  thousand  were  present. 
Four  hundred  converts  attended  the  meeting  for 
praise  and  instruction.  The  city  of  Glasgow  was 
reached  on  Sunday,  February  8th.  The  first  audi- 
ence consisted  of  three  thousand  Sunday-school 
teachers;  the  prayer-meeting  opened  with  half  that 
number.  The  Crystal  Palace,  which  held  above  five 
thousand,  was  always  crowded,  though  admission 
could  only  be  had  by  ticket.  To  meet  the  emer- 
gency, special  meetings  were  organized  for  young 
7 


118  THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT. 

men  and  young  women,  inquirers,  workingmen, 
and  the  intemperate.  Seventeen  thousand  signa- 
tures to  the  pledge  were  secured  here.  So  the 
work  of  awakening  went  on  for  three  months, 
steadily  increasing  in  power.  On  the  last  Sun- 
day afternoon,  a  great  audience  of  some  twenty 
or  thirty  thousand  gathered  in  the  Palace  garden, 
and  hung  on  the  words  of  Mr.  Moody,  as  he 
spoke  from  the  seat  of  a  carriage.  More  than 
three  thousand  united  to  the  city  congregations,  the 
large  proportion  of  whom  were  under  twenty- five. 
Short  visits  were  then  made  to  Paisley,  Greenock 
and  Gourock.  In  the  summer  a  tour  was  taken 
through  the  Highlands,  for  the  sowing  of  the  seed 
of  the  Word.  Meetings  were  held  in  the  open  air  at 
Perth,  Aberdeen,  Inverness,  and  elsewhere;  and 
many  souls  were  won.  In  Ireland,  the  common 
people  heard  the  preacher  gladly.  The  good  work 
began  at  Belfast,  on  Sunday,  September  6,  1874. 
To  reach  as  many  as  possible,  separate  sessions  were 
had  for  women  and  for  men,  for  professing  Chris- 
tians, for  the  unconverted,  and  for  inquirers,  for 
young  men  and  for  boys.  Huge  gatherings  were 
also  addressed  in  the  Botanic  Gardens,  a  space  of  six 
acres  being  filled  with  attentive  hearers.  On  Mon- 
day, September  27th,  a  remarkable  meeting  of  eight 
hours  for  inquirers  was  held,  wherein  above  two 
hundred  young  men  came  unto  Jesus  and  took  His 
yoke  upon  them.  And  when  the  young  converts 
were  collected  into  a  farewell  meeting,  tickets  for 
2,150  were  granted  to  such  applicants. 

Dublin,  five-sixths  of  whose  inhabitants  were  not 
Protestant,  awoke  into  a  newness  of  religious  life  on 
the  advent  of  the  evangelists.       From  the  25th  of 


THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT.  119 

October  to  the  29th  of  November,  the  whole  city 
was  stirred  in  a  wonderful  way.  The  great  Exhi- 
bition Palace  contained  audiences  in  the  evenings 
and  on  Sundays  of  from  twelve  to  fifteen  thousand. 
At  the  prayer-meetings  and  Bible  readings,  the 
number  often  exceeded  two  thousand.  Many 
Roman  Catholics  were  attentive  listeners,  and 
parish  priests  as  well.  The  stillness  of  these  vast 
assemblies  was  very  marked.  Truly  the  Lord  was 
faithful  in  answering  the  prayer  Mr.  Moody  con- 
tinually off  ered  in  private:  "O  God,  keep  the  people 
still,  hold  the  meeting  in  Thy  hand.  "  These  labors 
ended  with  a  three-days'  convention,  at  which  eight 
hundred  ministers  attended,  from  all  parts  of  Ire- 
land. Above  two  thousand  young  converts  con- 
fessed their  new-born  faith. 

Manchester  for  eight  months  had  besought  a  bless, 
ing  on  its  people ;  and  these  preparatory  services. 
were  closed  with  a  Communion  in  which  two  thou- 
sand Christians  united.  The  month  of  December 
was  devoted  here  to  evangelistic  work.  In  spite  of 
the  wintry  weather,  the  halls  were  crowded,  and 
overflow  meetings  had  to  be  organized.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  large  proportion  of  men  in  attend- 
ance was  noticeable.  The  city  was  mapped  out  into 
districts,  and  the  duty  of  distributing  cards  at  every 
dwelling  was  assigned  to  a  large  corps  of  volunteers. 
On  one  side  of  these  was  printed  the  hymn  *' Jesus 
of  Nazareth  Passeth  By;"  and  on  the  other,  a 
short  address  by  Mr.  Moody,  his  text  being  Rev- 
elations iii. ,  :2o.  The  efforts  of  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  to  purchase  a  suitable  build- 
ing met  with  a  cordial  indorsem.ent,  and  a  fourth  of 


120  THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT. 

the  entire  amount  needed  was  obtained  at  the  first 
public  meeting. 

In  Sheffield,  the  scheme  of  house-to-house  visita- 
tion had  to  be  abandoned  in  order  to  secure  the  co- 
operation of  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England. 
The  opening  meeting  was  held  on  New  Year's  eve, 
and  the  address  in  that  watch-night  service  was 
upon  Work.  The  great  congregation,  in  response 
to  Mr.  Moody's  request,  finished  the  old  year  and 
began  the  new  on  their  knees.  For  a  fortnight  the 
dwellers  in  this  industrial  town  collected  in  such 
numbers  as  to  pack  the  halls  and  the  sidewalks 
about  them,  so  that  the  evangelist  had  frequently 
to  speak  in  the  open  air.  The  work  at  Birming- 
ham, "the  toy-shop  of  the  world, "  was  also  limited 
for  lack  of  time.  The  spacious  Town  Hall  was 
crowded  on  January  17,  1875;  and  for  the  other 
gatherings,  even  Bingley  Hall,  which  held  twelve 
thousand,  proved  too  small.  Another  Christian 
convention  was  held,  at  which  above  a  thousand 
ministers  attended.  Sixteen  hundred  converts  re- 
ceived tickets  to  the  special  meeting  for  counsel. 
After  pausing  a  week  for  a  vacation,  these  lay  apos- 
tles began  their  ministry  of  a  month  at  Liverpool  on 
February  7th.  Victoria  Hall,  a  wooden  structure, 
able  to  shelter  eleven  thousand,  was  expressly 
erected  for  their  reception.  It  was  crowded  at  all 
the  night  services,  while  an  average  of  six  thousand 
attended  the  Bible  lectures  and  noon  meetings  for 
prayer.  These  three  services  were  held  every  day 
except  Saturday,  when  these  devoted  laborers  took 
the  rest  which  their  overtaxed  energies  so  impera- 
tively demanded.  The  house-to-house  visitation 
was  resumed  here,  and  efforts  were  niade  to  have  a 


THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT.  121 

personal  talk  with  the  non-churchgoers.  The  cor- 
ner-stone for  the  new  hall  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was 
laid,  and  a  convention  held  for  two  days,  which  was 
largely  attended  by  ministers  and  laymen. 

Four  months  were  devoted  to  evangelizing  the 
gigantic  metropolis  of  London.  Four  centers  were 
selected  for  preaching.  Agricultural  Hall,  at  Isling- 
ton, North  London,  could  seat  14,000  and  give 
standing  room  for  6,000  more ;  Bow  Road  Hall,  in  the 
extreme  east  had  10,000  sittings;  the  Royal  Opera 
House  in  the  west  end  was  in  the  aristocratic  quarter 
of  Westminster;  and  Victoria  Theater,  in  the  south, 
was  used  until  Camberwell  Hall  was  completed  in 
June.  This  gospel  campaign — the  mightiest  ever 
undertaken  by  any  evangelist — was  preceded  by  a 
course  of  union  prayer-meetings  for  five  months,  that 
the  Lord  might  prepare  the  way  for  a  glorious  man- 
ifestation of  His  power  by  purging  the  hearts  of 
His  own  followers.  A  private  conference  was  also 
held  in  advance  with  fifteen  hundred  of  the  city 
clergy,  in  order  to  explain  the  usual  plan  of  proced- 
ure, and  remove  any  misapprehensions  that  might 
exist.  The  whole  city  was  parceled  out  for  canvass- 
ing, and  countless  bands  of  yoke-fellows  were  sent 
out  to  leave  at  every  dwelling  the  tract  drawn  up 
by  Mr.  Moody,  and  to  tender  an  invitation  to  the 
services.  Among  these  laborers  was  an  old  woman 
aged  eighty-five  years,  who  fulfilled  her  duties  faith- 
fully, and  met  everywhere  words  of  kindness.  This 
wonderful  mission  was  opened  on  Tuesday  evening, 
the  9th  of  March,  at  Islington.  For  a  time  the  ser- 
vices were  met  with  mockery  and  ribald  speeches 
without,  by  disorderly  men  and  women.  But  these 
demonstrations  soon  subsided,  as  the  real  piety  of 


122  THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT. 

the  speakers  became  evident.  Fully  80,000  attended 
the  services  of  the  first  three  days,  and  45,000  heard 
the  three  addresses  on  the  vSunday  following.  At 
the  Royal  Opera  House,  the  nobility  and  gentry  of 
England  were  directly  reached  by  Bible  readings, 
and  members  of  the  royal  family  were  frequently 
present.  The  last  gospel  meeting  was  greater  than 
any  preceding,  and  a  great  number  arose  to  receive 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  final  meeting  of  thanks- 
giving was  held  at  Mildmay  Park  Conference  Hall, 
on  July  12th.  Seven  hundred  ministers  were  pres- 
ent to  say  farewell  to  the  evangelist,  whom  they 
were  so  loth  to  see  depart.  Dr.  A.  Bonar  testified 
that  the  work  of  increase  was  still  going  on  in  Glas- 
gow, with  at  least  7,000  members  already  added  to 
its  churches.  Other  ministers  bore  witness  to  the 
abundant  fruit  of  the  revival.  Then,  after  silent 
prayer,  the  two  evangelists  hastily  withdrew,  not 
daring  to  expose  themselves  to  the  ordeal  of  part- 
ing with  so  many  dear  associates.  They  had  held 
285  meetings  in  London;  these  were  attended  by 
fully  2,500,000  people;  the  expenses  were  $140,000. 
These  companions  came  together  at  the  final  meet- 
ings in  Liverpool.  They  sailed  homeward  on  the 
6th  of  August,  attended  by  many  loving  prayers, 
and  arrived  in  New  York  on  the  14th. 

It  was  during  their  first  meetings  in  England, 
that  a  rumor  was  circulated  throughout  the  British 
Isles,  that  Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey  were  frauds 
of  the  rankest  order,  and  that  they  had  no  standing 
whatever  in  America,  and  particularly  in  Chicago, 
from  whence  they  hailed.  Mr.  Moody  did  not  pay 
much  attention  to  this  at  first,  but  it  began  to  be  so 
widely  circulated  that  it  appeared  as  if  the  conse- 


THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT.  123 

quences  mig-ht  be  serious.  vSo  he  cabled  to  his 
friends  in  America,  and  the  ministers  of  Chicago 
endorsed  him  in  the  following  resolutions : 

"We,  the  undersigned  pastors  of  the  city  of  Chi- 
cago, learning  that  the  Christian  character  of  D.  L. 
Moody  has  been  attacked,  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
stroying his  influence  as  an  evangelist  in  Scotland, 
hereby  certify  that  his  labors  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  and  as  an  evangelist  in  this 
city  and  elsewhere,  according  to  the  best  informa- 
tion we  can  get,  have  been  evangelical  and  Christian 
in  the  highest  sense  of  those  terms;  and  we  do  not 
hesitate  to  commend  him  as  an  earnest  Christian 
worker,  worthy  of  the  confidence  of  our  Scotch  and 
English  brethren,  with  whom  he  is  now  laboring; 
believing  that  the  Master  will  be  honored  by  them 
in  so  receiving  him  among  them  as  a  co-laborer  in 
the  vineyard  of  the  Lord. ' ' 

While  holding  meetings  in  Liverpool,  an  immense 
audience  was  assembled  one  evening,  which  was 
being  addressed  by  the  Rev.  Chas.  Garrett,  a  Meth- 
odist minister  of  that  city.  Mr.  Garrett,  in  his  re- 
marks, deplored  the  fact  that  there  was  no  place  in 
Liverpool  or  any  of  the  large  English  cities,  where 
workmen  could  find  recreation  without  spending 
their  time  in  the  saloons  and  drinking  places.  He 
thought  that  it  would  be  a  splendid  scheme  if  some 
plan  could  be  devised  whereby  the  workmen  could 
be  looked  after.  This  gave  Mr.  Moody  an  idea,  and 
he  was  seen  in  a  hurried  whispered  consultation 
with  a  number  of  the  gentlemen  who  occupied  the 
stage.  Mr.  Garrett  finished  his  remarks  while  Mr. 
Moody  was  still  whispering.  Mr.  Moody  requested 
him  to  continue  for  ten  minutes.     Mr.  Garrett  con- 


124  THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT. 

tinued,  and  at  the  close  of  his  remarks,  Mr.  Moody 
announced  that  he  had  just  formed  the  British 
Workmen  Company — limited  —  with  a  capital  of 
$50,000.  That  Lord  So-and-So — indicating  one  of 
the  gentlemen  on  the  stage — had  subscribed  a  thou- 
sand pounds;  Lord  So-and-So,  another  stage  occu- 
pant, another  thousand  pounds,  and  so  on,  until 
forty  thousand  pounds  had  been  subscribed  inside 
of  ten  minutes.  Mr.  Moody  then  announced  that 
Mr.  Garrett  would  take  charge  of  the  fund  and  pro- 
ceed to  the  erection  of  coffee  houses,  as  outlined  in 
his  address,  and  also  suggested  that  Mr.  Garrett 
raise  the  balance  necessary  to  make  up  the  total 
capital.  Mr.  Garrett  protested  that  the  rules  of  his 
church  would  not  permit  him  to  remain  longer  in 
Liverpool,  he  having  finished  the  three  years'  term 
of  his  pastorate.  Mr.  Moody  told  him,  he  would 
fix  that,  and  he  did.  The  coffee  houses  were  estab- 
lished in  Liverpool  and  spread  to  all  of  the  large 
cities  of  England.  They  paid,  in  dividends,  to  the 
stockholders,  25  per  cent  for  many  years,  and  never 
less  than  10  per  cent.  In  this  connection  it  may  be 
well  to  state  that  Mr.  Garrett,  who  remained  at  the 
head  of  the  institution  for  many  years,  was  the  first 
minister  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  England  who 
was  ever  allowed  to  remain  in  one  place  longer 
than  the  stipulated  three  years. 

In  speaking  once  of  the  incidents  of  his  European 
visit,  Mr.  Moody  told  the  following  story : 

"I  went  to  London  in  1872  just  to  spend  three  or 
four  months,  and  one  night  I  spoke  in  a  prayer- 
meeting.  I  went  into  a  Congregational  church,  and 
I  preached  with  an  unusual  power.  There  didn't 
seem  to  be  anything  out  of  the  regular  line  in  the 


■■■^>^ ^^^r"Mf  ^^  .?  ^Wa 


THEIR   ENGLISH  VISIT.  127 

service.  In  fact,  I  was  a  little  disappointed.  I 
didn't  seem  to  have  much  liberty  there.  That  even- 
ing, at  6.30,  I  preached  to  men.  There  seemed  to 
be  a  great  power.  It  seemed  as  if  the  building  was 
filled  with  the  glory  of  God,  and  I  asked  for  an  ex- 
pression when  I  got  through.  They  rose  by  the 
hundreds.  I  said,  'They  don't  know  what  this 
means;'  so  I  thought  I  would  put  another  test.  I 
just  asked  them  to  step  back  into  the  chapel — all 
those  that  wanted  to  become  Christians,  but  no  one 
else.  They  flocked  into  the  chapel  by  the  hundreds. 
I  was  in  great  perplexity.  I  couldn't  understand 
what  it  meant.  I  went  down  to  Dublin  the  next 
day,  and  on  Tuesday  morning  I  got  a  dispatch 
saying,  'Come  to  London  at  once  and  help  us. '  I 
didn't  know  what  to  make  of  it,  but  I  hastened  back 
to  London  and  labored  there  ten  days,  and  there 
were  four  hundred  names  recorded  at  that  time. 
For  months  I  could  not  understand  what  it  meant, 
but  by-and-by  I  found  out. " 


CHAPTER  XL 


THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING. 

Moody  and  Sankey  were  at  Birmingham  in  the 
early  part  of  January  in  1874.  Their  first  meeting 
was  held  on  Sunday  morning,  the  17th,  at  8  o'clock, 
in  the  town  hall.  The  meeting  was  for  "Christian 
workers,"  and  the  admission  was  by  ticket.  The 
morning  was  cheerless,  damp  and  raw,  but  the 
people  were  crowded  in  every  part.  In  the  after- 
noon they  held  an  open  service  in  the  hall,  and 
thousands  went  away  unable  to  get  in.  The  great 
test,  however,  which  they  had  excited  came  in  the 
evening.  In  October,  1873,  when  Mr.  Bright 
addressed  his  constituents  after  his  return  to  the 
cabinet,  he  spoke  in  Bingley  Hall,  a  building  used 
for  the  annual  cattle  show,  and  as  a  drill  hall  for 
the  volunteers.  Various  estimates  were  made  as  to 
the  number  of  people  who  listened  on  that  occasion. 
It  seems  probable  that  most  of  them  fell  far  short  of 
the  truth.  There  were  no  seats  on  the  floor  of  the 
hall,  and  without  se^s  there  is  now  reason  to  believe 
that  the  hall  will  hold  between  20,000  and  25,000 
people.     It  was  crowded  in  every  part. 

For  the  meetings,  the  "Moody  and  Sankey  Com- 
mittee" hired  upwards  of  9,000  chairs.  On  their 
first  Sunday  evening,  long  before  8  o'clock,  when 
the  services  commenced,   not    only    were    all   the 

128 


THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING.  129 

chairs  occupied,  but  several  thousands  of  people  were 
standing,  and  thousands  could  not  gain  admission. 
It  is  believed  by  those  who  are  in  a  position  to 
judge,  that  there  were  fully  13,000  people  present 
every  night.  Through  the  first  week  the  hall  was 
thronged  in  the  same  way,  and  there  were  vast 
crowds  outside. 

On  Sunday  morning,  January  24th,  it  was  filled 
with  people  who  obtained  admission  by  tickets,  and 
who,  before  they  received  their  tickets  declared  that 
they  were  not  in  the  habit  of  attending  any  place  of 
worship.  In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  it  was 
filled  with  women,  and  a  second  service  was  held  in 
the  town  hall  for  the  overflow,  and  in  the  evening 
it  was  filled  with  men.  There  was  a  break  on  the 
Monday  afternoon  of  the  second  week,  when  Mr. 
Moody  had  an  engagement  at  Manchester.  He  pro- 
fessed to  have  met  Christ  on  his  visit  to  that  city. 
Mr.  Bright  spoke  in  the  hall  that  night,  and  it  was 
most  inconveniently  crowded,  but  some  people  were 
of  the  opinion  that  on  several  of  the  following  eve- 
nings the  crowd  that  filled  the  hall  for  religious  ser- 
vice was  denser  than  that  which  filled  it  for  the 
political  demonstration. 

Night  after  night,  long  before  the  hour  of  service, 
long  rows  of  carriages  stood  in  the  street  filled  with 
persons  who  hoped  that  when  the  crowd  about  the 
doors  had  thinned,  they  might  be  able  to  find  stand- 
ing room  just  inside,  and  thousands  streamed  away 
because  they  found  they  had  come  too  late  to  have 
a  chance  of  pressing  in. 

In  addition  to  the  evening  service,  there  was  a 
prayer  meeting  every  noon,  at  which  Mr.  Moody 
gave  an  address  of  twenty  or  twenty-five  minutes, 


130  THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING. 

and  Mr.  Sankey  sang.  The  meeting  was  held  at 
first  in  the  Town  Hall,  which  was  generally  quite 
full.  On  the  last  four  days  it  was  held  in  Bingley 
Hall,  and  the  attendance  varied  from  four  to  six 
thousand.  At  three  o'clock,  after  the  first  day  or 
two,  Mr.  Moody  gave  a  Bible  lecture.  He  began 
in  Carr's  Lane  Chapel,  which  was  soon  found  to  be 
too  small.  It  was  then  transferred  to  Bingley  Hall, 
and  the  attendance  varied  from  five  to  ten  thousand. 

The  meetings  had  been  well  advertised.  The 
local  newspapers  published  a  series  of  articles  on 
Mr.  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey  before  they  came, 
describing  the  impression  they  had  produced  in 
Scotland  and  Ireland.  The  Morning  News  gener- 
ally gave  several  columns  each  day  to  the  reports  of 
the  service.  The  Daily  Post  gave  great  prominence 
to  this  news  feature,  and  even  the  local  Conservative 
organ,  the  Daily  Gazette,  always  had  enough  about 
the  evangelist  to  attract  attention.  The  local  com- 
mittee, in  addition  to  the  newspaper  notoriety,  cov- 
ered the  walls  of  the  town  with  placards,  announc- 
ing the  services  and  these  were  constantly  being 
renewed.  When  the  fact  became  known  that  Bing- 
ley Hall,  the  largest  in  the  city,  had  been  filled  to 
hear  the  strangers,  it  created  a  certain  measure  of 
popular  excitement  and  curiosity,  which  made  it 
almost  certain  that  the  hall  would  be  filled  again. 

These  services  were  not  deemed  "hysterical." 
The  first  sign  of  hysterical  excitement  was  instantly 
repressed  by  Mr.  Moody,  and  it  is  a  curious  fact 
that  although  the  crowds  were  enormous,  very  few 
women  fainted.  It  is  said  there  were  only  three  or 
four  cases  during  the  meeting. 

Mr.   Sankey  had  a  great  share  in  keeping  up  the 


THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING.  131 

interest  in  the  meetings,  and  it  is  interesting  at  this 
time  to  note  that  the  songs  which  to-day  have  lived 
and  are  popular  in  the  church  and  evangelistic  work 
were  the  ones  used  by  the  great  singer  in  his  Euro- 
pean meetings.  The  people  were  much  in  love  with 
such  songs  as  "Hold  the  Fort  for  I  am  Coming," 
"Safe  in  the  Arms  of  Jesus,"  and  "  I  am  So  Glad 
that  Jesus  Loves  Me,"  but  it  was  not  the  singing 
only  that  made  the  services  interesting.  There 
was  great  animation  and  variety  in  them.  In  the 
evening  they  began  with  a  hymn,  which  the  people 
sang  together,  but  what  would  be  the  order  of  the 
service  no  one  knew  before  hand,  and  it  has  been 
frequently  said  that  Mr.  Moody  did  not  even  know. 
He  had  the  instinctive  perception  to  a  remarkable 
degree  whereby  he  could  easily  tell  if  the  people 
were  interested.  After  the  first  hymn  somebody 
generally  offered  a  short  prayer.  If  it  was  clear 
that  the  heart  of  the  attendance  went  with  the 
prayer,  he  would  then  read  a  chapter  and  make  a 
few  remarks  on  it  as  he  read.  If  not,  he  would  ask 
Mr.  Sankey  to  sing  a  solo,  or  a  solo  with  a  chorus, 
in  which  the  people  joined,  or  else  one  of  the  most 
popular  hymns ;  then  he  would  read  a  chapter  and 
perhaps  have  another  hymn  or  offer  a  short  prayer 
himself.  Then  would  come  another  hymn,  and 
then  the  sermon.  Sometimes  the  sermon  would  be 
followed  by  a  solo  from  Mr.  Sankey.  Sometimes  by 
a  hymn,  in  which  all  united.  Sometimes  by  a  prayer. 
Everything  was  determined  by  what  was  felt  to  be 
the  actual  mood  of  the  moment.  Generally  the 
whole  service  was  over  in  a  little  more  than  an  hour 
and  a  quarter. 

"One   of  the  elements  of  Mr.  Moody's  power," 


132  THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING. 

said  a  critic  of  the  period,  "consisted  in  his  perfect 
naturalism.  He  had  something  to  say  and  he  said 
it,  and  said  it  as  simply  and  directly  to  13,000  people 
as  to  thirteen.  He  had  nothing  of  the  impudence 
into  which  some  speakers  are  betrayed  when  they 
try  to  be  easy  and  unconventional,  but  he  talked  in 
a  perfectly  unconstrained  and  straightforward  way, 
just  as  he  would  talk  to  half  a  dozen  old  friends  at 
his  own  fireside.  The  effect  of  this  was  very  intel- 
ligible. One  would  no  more  think  of  criticising  him 
than  to  think  of  criticising  a  man  one  meets  in  the 
street  who  directs  you  to  the  shortest  route  to  the 
depot.  There  are  some  men  who  force  one  to  be 
critical.  There  is  a  tendency  to  test  every  sentence 
they  utter.  Their  words  are  received  with  a  kind 
of  suspicion,  yet  this  never  occurred  to  the  people 
when  they  listened  to  Mr.  Moody.  Now  and  then 
Mr.  Moody  quoted  a  text  in  a  very  illegitimate  sense. 
Now  and  then  he  advanced  an  argument  which 
would  not  hold  water.  Now  and  then  he  laid  down 
principles  which  seemed  untenable,  and  there  may 
have  been  a  protest,  but  if  so,  it  was  only  moment- 
arily. ' ' 

Mr.  J.  R.  Creed,  in  an  article  published  in  Pear- 
son's Magazine,  in  1898,  about  Moody  and  Sankey, 
now  says,  Though  it  is  more  than  twenty  years 
since  the  Americans,  Moody  and  Sankey,  left  this 
country  after  their  remarkable  diatribe  on  British 
morals;  these  names  are  not  forgotten. 

During  their  famous  evangelistic  tour  over  2,500,- 
000  people  attended  their  meetings  in  London  alone, 
and  when  we  consider  the  thousands  that  thronged 
nightly  to  hear  them  in  the  Provinces  and  in  Ireland 
and   Scotland,  it  is  probable,  that  taking  all  in  all, 


THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING.  133 

they  addressed  the  greatest  number  of  different 
people  that  any  other  preachers  have  succeeded  in 
reaching. 

Their  names,  therefore,  have  passed  into  a  phrase, 
and  the  memory  has  been  kept  green  by  the  sale  of 
their  hymn  books,  which  have  attained  a  circulation 
of  several  millions,  a  secret  the  publishers  will  not 
divulge. 

And  what  wonderful  men  these  two — orators  and 
solicitors — were,  whatever  may  be  our  opinion  of 
their  methods. 

The  friends  who  had  invited  them  to  this  country, 
and  guaranteed  to  pay  their  expenses,  were  no 
longer  alive  when  they  at  last  reached  Liverpool. 
To  meet  these  predicaments,  which  left  them  com- 
pletely stranded,  an  edition  of  their  hymn  book  was 
at  once  issued,  part  of  the  proceeds  from  the  royalty 
being  sufficient  to  cover  their  personal  expenses 
from  the  first.  Indeed,  so  ready  was  the  sale  that 
on  his  return  from  Ireland,  in  1875,  Mr.  Moody 
announced  in  public  his  intention  of  ceasing  to  make 
private  use  of  the  income  so  derived,  and  the  bal- 
ance, which,  at  the  close  of  the  London  mission, 
had  amounted  to  nearly  ^6,000,  was  devoted  to  the 
liquidation  of  the  debt  incurred  by  the  members  of 
the  Chicago  church,  in  which  Moody  was  interested. 

There  were  people  who  declared  that  Moody  and 
Sankey  were  over  here  "to  make  as  much  money 
as  they  could  out  of  the  Lord, "  But  though  fab- 
ulous sums  were  collected  on  their  behalf,  fabulous 
sums  were  also  spent.  In  March,  1875,  Moody 
received  an  invitation  to  visit  London.  "  If  I  come, ' ' 
was  the  preacher's  response,  "you  will  have  to 
raise  ^^5,000  for  expenses." 


134  THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING. 

The  answer  came  at  once — 

"We  have  ^10,000  ready!" 

As  a  matter  of  fact  ^28,238  9s.  6d.  was  altogether 
received,  while  the  expenses  amounted  to  ^28, 296 
9s.  6d. ,  thus  showing  the  deficit  of  ;^58. 

Moody  and  Sankey's  reputation  had  preceded 
them,  and  London  awaited  their  arrival  with  no 
little  curiosity.  Who  were  these  great  men  who 
placarded  each  town  they  intended  to  visit  with 
vast  posters  announcing  their  arrival?  "Moody  and 
vSankey  are  coming!"  Was  it  a  traveling  show  or  a 
circus,  or  some  popular  entertainers? 

Wherever  they  went  they  engaged  the  largest 
buildings,  and,  provincial  theaters  and  public  halls 
were  crammed  each  night  from  floor  to  skylight, 
thousands  who  had  waited  for  hours  struggled  vainly 
for  admission. 

"To  hear  Moody  and  Sankey, "  says  a  writer  of 
the  day,  in  a  London  paper,  "the  theaters  are 
deserted,  the  gin  shops  emptied,  the  streets  appear 
depopulated,  and  the  very  nature  and  habits  of  a 
work-a-day's  world  were  seized  and  transformed  by 
them  into  something  new.  They  came  in  scorn, 
and  left  behind  respect,  surprise,  new  thoughts,  and 
whole  communities  stirred  to  the  quick." 

On  March  16,  1875,  over  twenty-two  thousand 
people  thronged  the  Agricultural  Hall  to  hear 
them,  and  more  than  ten  thousand  people  were 
turned  away  unable  to  obtain  even  standing  room. 
Such  various  characters  of  all  ranks  and  all  conditions 
of  men  and  women  and  children  as  could  gather  in 
the  largest  buildings,  London  had  never  before  seen 
or  known  in  the  metropolis.  During  the  addresses 
the     audience     arose     literally     in    hundreds   and 


THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING.  137 

expressed  their  desire  to  be  saved!  "The  cream  of 
the  hour,"  Mr.  Moody  asserted,  "was  in  the  inquiry 
room." 

The  Prince  of  Wales,  Dean  Stanley,  and  Lord 
Cairnes  honored  the  revivalists  by  going  to  hear 
them.  Already  they  had  become  popular  heroes. 
One  thousand  pounds  was  offered  to  Mr.  Moody  if 
he  would  sit  for  a  photograph,  an  offer  which  he, 
however,  unhesitatingly  declined,  declaring  that  he 
would  pay  five  hundred  pounds  to  be  able  to  prevent 
portraits  of  himself  to  be  sold.  Thousands  of  men 
and  women,  people  of  high  life,  who  drove  up  in 
their  carriages,  poor  creatures  who  dragged  them- 
selves to  the  meetings  on  weary  feet,  professed  to 
"find  Christ. "  The  converted  were  divided  into 
classes  and  placed  under  the  pastors  to  whose  con- 
gregation they  belonged. 

In  speaking  of  Moody  and  Sankey,  the  preacher 
was  always  mentioned  first.  But  to  imply  from  this 
that  the  singer  played  an  inferior  part  in  the  work 
would  be  both  an  unfair  and  a  mistaken  view. 
Sankey  had  one  of  the  finest  tenor  voices  that  had 
ever  been  heard.  When  he  sang  he  held  the  people 
enraptured.  Moody's  eloquence  it  is  difficult  to 
criticise.  To  address  and  entertain  20,000  people 
night  after  night,  month  after  month,  was  a  per- 
formance that  only  a  great  preacher  could  accom- 
plish. Yet  he  made  no  attempt  at  rhetoric.  Illus- 
tration was  employed  to  occupy  the  place  of  argu- 
ment. Eloquence  receded  before  a  store  of  simple 
anecdote. 

It  was  Moody  who  knitted  the  attention  of  the  vast 
audiences,  who  held  them  spellbound,  and  Sankey's 
wonderful  voice  which  carried  them  away  in  a  burst 


138  THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING. 

of  spiritual  enthusiasm,  ceasing  to  leave  them  once 
more,  in  the  great  hush  that  follows,  in  the  convinc- 
ing arguments  of  the  preacher. 

The  most  extraordinary  event  in  connection  with 
Moody  and  Sankey's  visit  to  this  country  was  in  con- 
nection with  their  proposed  visit  to  Eaton  College. 
From  some  of  the  boys,  ,or  some  of  the  boys'  parents, 
they  received  a  pressing  invitation  to  visit  the  school. 
The  moment  this  became  known  there  arose  such  a 
storm  in  London  as  no  similar  event  has  ever  called 
forth. 

The  question  came  up  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Thirty-four  members  arose  to  their  feet.  A 
serious  and  animated  discussion  occurred  in  the 
House  of  Lords;  a  remonstrance,  newly  signed,  was 
sent  to  the  head  master. 

In  spite  of  this  a  large  tent,  capable  of  holding  a 
thousand  persons,  was  erected  in  the  south  meadow  of 
the  College  play  field,  and  a  public  notice  was  given 
of  a  service,  especially  addressed  to  the  students. 
At  the  last  moment,  however,  an  edict  was  issued 
which  emphatically  prohibited  this.  Mr.  Moody  at 
once  appealed  to  the  Mayor  for  the  use  of  Round 
Hall,  a  request  that  was  at  first  acceded  to.  Shortly 
before  three,  however,  the  hour  at  which  the  serv- 
ice was  to  commence,  a  notice  was  posted  on  the 
door  declaring  that  no  meeting  would  be  held. 

Nothing  daunted.  Moody  obtained  permission  to 
deliver  his  address  in  the  garden  of  one  of  the  houses 
in  High  street.  At  least  seventy  or  eighty  Eaton 
boys  were  present.  The  meeting  was  very  quiet 
and  orderly.  It  may  be  that  a  lasting  impression 
was  made  on  these  youthful  attendants ;  at  all  events, 


THE  BIRMINGHAM  MEETING.  139 

Mr.  Moody's  address  and  Sankey's  melodies  could 
not  have  done  them  the  slightest  harm. 

When  the  two  finally  quitted  the  country  vast 
crowds  congregated  at  Liverpool  to  see  them  off. 
At  their  farewell  services  both  Moody's  stand  and 
Sankey's  organ  was  decorated  with  flowers  and 
costly  bouquets ;  their  appearance  was  greeted  with 
tremendous  applause ;  nor  is  it  surprising  that  orator 
and  melodist  should  both  be  broken  down  on  that 
occasion. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


AMERICAN  MEETINGS. 

Mr.  Moody,  at  the  close  of  one  of  his  great  meet- 
ings in  Boston,  gave  a  talk  on  finance  and  asked  the 
people  there  to  give  him  $30,000.  He  said  that 
$20,000  of  it  would  be  used  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  the  meetings  that  had  been  held  there,  and  $10,- 
000  was  to  secure  the  use  of  the  tabernacle  for  one 
year  for  gospel  purposes.  He  stated  that  in  the 
meeting  he  recently  held  in  Chicago  not  only  had 
they  raised  enough  money  to  pay  the  expense  of 
that  meeting,  but  had  raised  $80,000  additional  to 
pay  the  debt  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  He  said  that  when 
this  big  sum  had  been  raised,  people  not  in  sympathy 
with  him  or  his  work,  stated  that  Moody  and  San- 
key  had  carried  off  a  large  portion  of  it.  He  said 
that  if  this  had  been  true  it  would  have  been  very 
good  pay  for  three  months'  work.  He  said  if  he 
had  taken  the  money  the  public  would  have  a  right 
to  know  how  they  spent  it.  But  as  they  were  not 
employed  by  the  public,  he  did  not  see  any  reason 
why  he  should  give  any  statement,  as  there  had 
never  been  any  collection  for  them.  He  said  that 
when  he  gave  up  his  business  in  Chicago,  after  three 
months  of  the  severest  struggle  of  his  life,  as  to 
whether  he  should  go  for  dollars  and  cents,  or  for 
souls,  that  from  that  day  he  had  no  more  lived  for 

140 


AMERICAN  MEETINGS.  141 

money  than  he  had  for  water.  He  said  he  had  been 
offered  $500  a  night  to  lecture,  and  that  when  the 
lecture  was  over  he  could  go  to  his  hotel  and  get  a 
comfortable  night's  sleep.  But  during  his  evangel- 
ism he  had  worked  all  day  and  talked  all  night  with 
inquirers,  and  that  when  he  was  done  he  was  so  tired 
and  weak  that  he  could  hardly  get  to  his  room. 

While  holding  meetings  at  Burlington,  Ta. ,  a  num- 
ber of  years  ago  the  hall  was  crowded  so  densely 
that  women  began  to  faint ;  one  woman  in  particular 
fell  down  in  a  crowd  in  the  aisle  and  it  was  with 
difficulty  that  she  could  be  removed.  The  weather 
was  bitter  cold  and  the  air  inside  the  building  was 
very  bad.  Mr.  Moody  changed  his  plan  of  con- 
ducting the  meeting  and  would  order  hymns  every 
five  or  ten  minutes,  at  which  time  the  windows  or 
doors  would  be  thrown  wide  open,  allowing  the  air 
of  the  place  to  become  clear.  This  was  quite  a  re- 
lief and  no  bad  effects  were  noticeable. 

At  the  Christian  convention  held  in  Boston,  in 
1877,  Mr.  Moody  was  present  and  told  of  his  own  ex- 
perience in  his  Christian  work  in  Chicago,  and  when 
his  congregation  was  discouragingly  small,  he  said 
he  found  a  way  to  success  by  putting  the  converts 
to  work  trying  to  bring  others  into  the  fold.  He 
said  that  one  man  who  was  converted  was  unable  to 
speak  English,  and  that  when  conversation  took 
place  it  was  done  through  an  interpreter.  This 
man  wanted  to  do  something  for  the  cause  and  he 
was  put  to  work  distributing  religious  bills.  Mr. 
Moody  said  that  some  people  blessed  him  and  some 
cursed  him,  but  it  made  no  difference  to  the  man, 
for  he  could  not  understand  English.  But  this  man 
was  the  means  of  converting  a  great  many  people. 


142  AMERICAN  MEETINGS. 

Mr.  Moody  also  advocated  congregational  singing, 
as  he  believed  this  had  done  much  good  work.  He 
said  that  he  had  been  able  to  reach  many  young 
men  by  going  to  billiard  halls  and  singing  some 
patriotic  song  followed  by  a  religious  hymn.  He 
said  that  the  first  signs  of  the  breaking  of  the  ice  was 
noticed  in  the  men  removing  their  hats  and  they 
soon  did  not  object  to  hearing  the  Scriptures  read 
or  a  prayer  offered.  He  said  that  one  time  he  took 
sixteen  men  out  of  one  saloon  and  nine  of  them 
went  to  the  inquiry  room. 

In  this  same  Boston  meeting  Mr.  Moody  was 
asked  a  number  of  questions,  and  among  them  was, 
"Why  don't  you  teach  baptism?"  He  said  in  reply, 
"If  I  should  teach  baptism  by  sprinkling,  I  would 
lose  the  influence  of  one  good  sort  of  Christians. 
Evangelists  are  just  to  proclaim  the  gospel,  and 
they  should  keep  out  of  that  controverted  ques- 
tion."  He  said  the  work  of  the  evangelist  was 
always  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  churches 
interested  in  the  movement.  He  said  it  was  never 
any  good  arguing  with  an  infidel,  the  thing  was 
to  pray  with  him.  He  was  not  a  great  believer  in 
books  or  tracts,  but  believed  in  the  Scripture. 

Somebody  asked  him  how  gambling  in  churches 
could  be  cured.  He  said,  have  no  festivals,  there  is 
no  gambling  in  prayer  meetings.  He  said  the  first 
thing  was  to  get  life  in  yourself.  In  the  camp  Sion 
convention,  held  at  the  Hippodrome  in  New  York 
in  March,  1876,  Mr.  Moody  said  in  the  course  of 
one  of  his  talks  on  Evangelism  that  he  believed  the 
secret  of  John  Wesley's  success  was  that  he  set 
every  man  to  work  as  soon  as  they  were  converted. 


AMERICAN  MEETINGS.  143 

He  thought  the  plan  a  good  one,  as  idleness  was 
conducive  to  spiritual  laziness. 

He  said  that  sometimes  a  convert  would  wake  up 
a  whole  community  and  that  it  was  very  natural 
that  the  first  thing  a  man  was  to  do  after  he  was 
converted  was  to  go  out  and  tell  somebody  about  it. 

He  was  not  a  believer  in  the  plan  of  changing 
speakers  each  night,  he  said  he  had  known  of  sev- 
eral times  when  that  had  been  tried  and  that  there 
had  been  no  good  results.  He  thought  that  the 
proper  way  to  hold  a  religious  revival  was  to  have 
one  or  two  men  to  preach  continuously  for  two  or 
three  weeks.  He  said  that  a  great  many  meetings 
were  killed  because  they  were  so  long.  He  said 
that  one  of  the  troubles  was  that  you  preach  the 
people  into  the  spirit  and  out  again  before  the  meet- 
ing was  over.  He  said  that  the  proper  thing  was 
to  send  the  people  home  hungry  and  then  they 
would  come  again. 

The  gospel  campaign  in  the  Union  began  at 
Brooklyn  on  Sunday,  October  24,  1875,  ^^^  contin- 
ued there  until  November  19th.  The  Rink,  on 
Clermont  Avenue,  which  had  sittings  for  five  thou- 
sand, was  selected  for  the  preaching  services,  while 
Mr.  Talmage's  tabernacle  was  devoted  to  praj'er- 
meetings.  A  choir  of  250  Christian  singers  was  led 
by  Mr.  Sankey. 

In  Philadelphia  a  spacious  freight  depot,  at  Thir- 
teenth and  Market  streets,  was  improvised  to  serve 
as  a  hall.  Chairs  were  provided  for  about  10,000 
listeners,  besides  a  chorus  of  six  hundred  singers 
seated  on  the  platform.  The  expenses  were  met  by 
voluntary  contributions  outside,  which  amounted  to 
$30,000.    A  corps  of  three  hundred  Christians  acted 


144  AMERICAN  MEETINGS. 

as  ushers,  and  a  like  number  of  selected  workers 
served  in  the  three  inquiry  rooms.  At  the  opening 
service,  early  on  Sunday  morning,  November  21st, 
nine  thousand  were  present,  in  spite  of  a  drenching 
storm.  In  the  afternoon,  almost  twice  as  many 
were  turned  away  as  found  entrance.  Henceforth, 
until  the  close  on  January  i6th,  the  attendance  and 
popular  interest  never  slackened.  A  special  service 
was  held  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  and  a  watch-meet- 
ing on  New  Year's  eve,  from  9  to  12.  Efforts  were 
made  to  reach  all  classes  of  the  community,  and  the 
meetings  for  young  men  were  specially  blessed.  A 
careful  computation  puts  the  total  attendance  at 
900,000,  and  the  converts  at  4,000.  Before  leaving 
the  city,  a  collection  was  made  on  behalf  of  the  new 
hall  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and 
about  $100,000  were  obtained.  A  Christian  conven- 
tion was  held  on  the  19th  and  20th  of  January,  and 
pertinent  suggestions  about  the  methods  of  evangel- 
istic work  were  given  for  the  benefit  of  the  two 
thousand  ministers  and  laymen  in  attendance  from 
outlying  towns. 

For  the  mission  in  New  York  City,  the  Hippo- 
drome at  Madison  and  Fourth  Avenues  was  leased, 
at  a  rental  of  $1,500  weekly,  and  $10,000  were  ex- 
pended in  its  preparation.  It  was  partitioned  into 
two  halls,  one  seating  6,500,  the  other  4,000,  the 
intent  being  to  use  the  second  for  overflow  meet- 
ings, and  so  bring  such  large  congregations  more 
completely  under  the  speaker's  control.  A  choir  of 
800  singers  and  a  corps  of  lay  workers  were  organ- 
ized. The  deep  concern  of  the  people  to  hear  the  plain 
gospel  preached  and  sung  was  as  deep  here  among 
all  classes  as  elsewhere,  and  the  attendance  was  un- 


AMERICAN  MEETINGS.  145 

flagging  from  February  7th  to  April  19th.  Again, 
a  Christian  conference  was  convened  for  two  days, 
at  which  Christian  workers  from  the  North  and  East 
took  counsel  together.  At  the  final  meeting  for 
young  converts  3,500  were  present  by  ticket. 

Mr.  Moody  spent  two  weeks  in  May  with  his 
friend,  Major  Whittle,  at  Augusta,  Georgia,  while 
Mr.  Sankey  took  a  rest  at  Newcastle.  He  preached 
with  his  usual  fervor  to  large  congregations.  He 
traveled  northward  to  Chicago  by  way  of  Nashville," 
Louisville,  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City,  holding 
meetings  on  the  way.  His  new  church  edifice  on 
Chicago  Avenue,  was  opened  on  his  arrival.  It 
was  a  large  brick  building  with  stone  facings,  meas- 
uring 120  by  100  feet,  and  having  a  bell-tower  120 
feet  high.  Its  entire  cost  was  ^100,000,  all  of  which 
was  paid  before  its  dedication.  August  and  Septem- 
ber were  spent  in  a  visit  to  the  old  Northfield  home- 
stead, and  in  little  tours  to  Greenfield,  Springfield 
and  Brattleboro. 

Chicago  gave  the  heartiest  welcome  to  its  own 
Moody  and  Sankey  in  October,  where  they  resumed 
the  mission  work  suspended  by  them  three  years 
before.  A  tabernacle  was  erected  which  could 
shelter  10,000,  and  a  choir  of  300  singers  was  organ- 
ized. The  city  pastors  gave  a  most  cordial  support, 
and  its  populace,  many  of  whom  had  seen  their 
homes  twice  burnt  to  the  ground,  were  eager  to  lis- 
ten to  the  earnest  messages  of  free  salvation.  ,  The 
great  Northwest  was  now  moved,  as  never  before, 
especially  when  tidings  came  of  the  sudden  death  of 
Phillip  P.  Bliss  and  his  wife  at  Ashtabula  on  De- 
cember 29th.  Within  three  months  4,800  converts 
were  recorded  in  Chicago. 


146  AMERICAN  MEETINGS. 

The  evangelical  Christians  of  Boston  had  long 
been  waiting  on  the  Lord  for  a  special  blessing  on 
their  city.  A  permanent  brick  edifice  was  built  on 
Tremont  Street,  able  to  seat  a  congregation  of  six 
thousand.  Dr.  Tourjee  gathered  a  body  of  two 
thousand  Christian  singers,  and  organized  it  into 
five  distinct  choirs.  The  thoughtful  addresses  of 
Rev.  Joseph  Cook  were  of  use  in  preparing  that  cul- 
tured and  critical  cit)'  for  the  advent  of  the  eavangel- 
ists.  And  the  result  of  the  religious  services  was 
almost  beyond  expectation.  Instead  of  a  single 
noon  meeting  for  prayer,  seven  or  eight  sprang  up 
throughout  the  city,  with  numbers  varying  from  200 
to  1,500.  Ninety  churches  co-operated  in  a  house- 
to-house  visitation,  and  2,000  visitors  were  enrolled 
into  these  bands  of  yoke-fellows.  Throughout  all 
New  England  the  quickened  activities  of  the 
churches  were  unmistakable,  and  the  evangelical 
faith  met  a  more  respectful  hearing  from  its  think- 
ing classes  than  had  been  witnessed  for  a  hundred 
years. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


MR.   MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

Personal  dealing  is  of  the  utmost  importance. 
No  one  can  tell  how  many  souls  have  been  lost 
through  not  following  up  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel  by  personal  work. 

People  are  not  usually  converted  under  the  preach- 
ing of  the  minister.  It  is  in  the  inquiry-meeting 
that  they  are  most  likely  to  be  brought  to  Christ. 

A  doctor  doesn't  prescribe  cod- liver  oil  for  all 
complaints. 

What  a  man  wants  is  to  be  able  to  read  his  Bible, 
and  to  read  human  nature,  too. 

There  are  a  great  many  church-members  who  are 
hobbling  about  on  crutches. 

One  backslider  can  do  more  harm  in  the  world 
than  twenty  Christian  men  can  do  good. 

Every  man  should  make  a  public  confession  if 
his  sin  has  been  public. 

When  you  tell  an  unconverted  person  who  desires 
to  become  a  Christian  that  he  is  to  live  without  sin, 
you  discourage  him. 

You  can't  offer  a  man  a  greater  insult  than  to 
accuse  him  of  telling  a  wilful  lie. 

I  challenge  any  infidel  to  put  his  finger  on  any 
promise  that  God  has  not  kept. 

For  6,000  years  the  devil  has  been  trying  to  find 
out  if  God  has  broken  His  word. 

147 


148  MR.  MOODY'S  CRlSP  SAYINGS. 

What  a  jubilee  there  would  be  in  Hell  to-day  if 
they  found  God  had  broken  His  word ! 

Just  preach  Christ,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  will  bear 
witness. 

We  want  to  get  the  church  up  on  a  higher  plain. 
Let  there  be  a  teaching  out  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  church  will  grow. 

A  great  many  churches  in  this  country  hardly  ex- 
pect to  gain  in  numbers.  If  they  hold  their  own 
they  think  they  are  doing  pretty  well. 

I  don't  believe  a  man  can  preach  the  simple  Gos- 
pel faithfully,  anywhere  in  this  country,  and  not 
have  inquirers  inside  of  thirty  days,  and  there  will 
be  those  added  to  the  church  daily  of  such  as  shall 
be  saved. 

If  you  can  get  a  man  to  walk  across  a  church  be- 
fore all  the  people,  and  go  into  an  inquiry-room,  it 
means  a  great  deal. 

There  is  nothing  like  keeping  the  people  stirred 
up  all  the  time — full  of  courage — full  of  hope. 

There  is  no  trouble  about  getting  the  people  to 
attend  the  weekly  prayer-meeting  if  it  is  made 
interesting. 

We  don't  hear  of  long  prayers  in  the  Bible,  ex- 
cept at  the  dedication  of  Solomon's  Temple,  and 
that  comes  but  once  in  centuries. 

No  one  likes  to  hear  a  long  prayer,  and  when  a 
man  is  making  one,  very  likely  the  people  are  pray- 
ing that  he  will  stop. 

Long  prayers  may  have  been  all  right  in  other 
times,  but  they  are  not  now.  Men  think  quicker 
than  they  used  to,  and  act  quicker. 

If  a  man  will  pray  fifteen  minutes  in  a  prayer- 
meeting,  he  will  pray  all  the  spirituality  out  of  it. 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  149 

Any  minister  that  preaches  twice  on  Sundays,  and 
then  gives  a  long  lecture  in  the  prayer-meeting,  will 
kill  any  church  in  this  country. 

I  believe  the  time  is  coming  when  in  many  of  our 
churches  there  will  be  a  meeting  every  night  in  the 
week. 

Everything  shouldn't  depend  on  the  minister. 
What  you  want  is  to  bring  out  all  the  talent  you 
have  got  in  the  church. 

It  helps  a  meeting  wonderfully  to  introduce  new 
tunes  as  fast  as  the  people  will  learn  them. 

There  ought  to  be  more  effort  made  for  good 
music  in  all  our  churches  and  Sabbath-schools. 

If  a  woman  goes  into  a  house  she  can  sit  down 
with  the.  wife  and  family,  and  talk  and  pray,  and 
when  the  man  comes  home  in  the  evening  he  won't 
get  mad  and  rage  as  he  might  ii  a  man  had  been 
there. 

I  firmly  believe  that  if  we  had  to-day,  in  these 
great  cities,  hundreds  where  we  have  one  lady  mis- 
sionary, we  would  soon  break  up  this  Nihilism,  and 
Communism,  and  all  such  things. 

When  a  young  mother  is  just  beginning  to  feel 
her  responsibility,  it  isn't  very  difficult  to  reach  her 
heart. 

When  I  commenced  to  give  Bible  readings,  years 
ago,  I  used  to  give  about  forty  quotations  at  one 
time ;  but  I  found  the  people  got  tired — the  sermon 
was  too  heavy  for  them.  Then  I  cut  the  number 
down  to  twenty.  Now  I  have  cut  it  to  ten.  If 
I  can  bring  out  the  meaning  of  ten  passages,  with  a 
story  here  and  there  to  keep  up  the  interest,  I 
think  I  get  more  truth  lodged  in  their  minds 
than  if  I  used  a  hundred  passages.     There  is  a  dan- 


150  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

ger  of  giving  too  much ;  the  people  won't  stand  it 
We  must  give  them  homoepathic  doses.  It  is  better 
to  take  a  dozen  passages  and  throw  light  on  them 
than  to  run  over  a  hundred  and  not  say  a  word  be- 
tween them. 

I  think  there  is  no  better  place  for  people  to  begin 
Christian  work  than  right  at  their  own  homes. 

If  a  man  hasn't  got  a  good  enough  record  to  have 
any  effect  at  home,  he  won't  be  of  much  account  in 
the  foreign  field. 

If  we  keep  at  it  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days 
in  the  year,  there  will  be  a  good  deal  of  work  done 
at  the  end  of  the  year. 

Money  is  a  very  small  account  in  the  sight  of  God. 

The  great  trouble  with  many  of  us  is,  that  we  are 
working  for  God  without  power. 

There  was  a  time  when  I  thought  the  raising  of 
Lazarus  was  the  greatest  work  ever  done  on  this 
earth.  But  I  think  the  conversion  of  those  three 
thousand  Jews  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  more 
wonderful  still. 

There  are  a  great  many  men  who  had  power  five 
years  ago  that  haven't  got  it  now.  They  are  like 
Samson  robbed  of  his  strength,  or  like  fishermen 
working  with  old,  broken  nets. 

It  is  an  awfully  sad  thing  for  a  man  to  outlive  his 
usefulness,  to  be  laid  aside  as  a  vessel  no  longer 
meet  for  the  Master's  use. 

There  are  a  good  many  Christians  God  can't  use 
as  He  used  them  once. 

Of  all  the  skeptics  I  have  seen,  I  have  never  seen 
but  one  who  claimed  to  have  read  the  Bible  through, 
and  I  doubted  him,  because  he  could  not  tell  me  of 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  151 

but  one  verse  in  the  Bible,  and  that  was,  "Jesus 
wept." 

As  for  the  mysteries  of  the  Bible  I  am  glad  they 
are  there,  and  that  there  are  l;eights  and  depths 
that  I  have  never  been  able  to  fathom,  and  length 
and  breadth  that  no  man  has  ever  been  able  to  dis- 
cover. If  I  could  take  that  book  up  and  understand 
it  all  it  would  be  pretty  good  proof  that  it  did  not 
come  from  God. 

It  is  easy  to  talk  against  the  Bible,  but  did  you 
ever  think  how  dark  this  old  world  would  be  without 
it? 

Millions  of  men  have  gone  down  to  the  grave 
because  of  their  loyalty  to  the  Bible.  Some  people 
have  tried  to  stamp  it  out,  but  God  has  raised  up 
witnesses  for  it.  I  thank  God  I  live  where  it  is  read. 
Anarchy,  nihilism,  socialism,  would  sweep  this 
whole  country,  your  property  and  your  life  would 
not  be  safe,  if  it  was  not  for  this  old  book. 

If  you  do  not  like  the  Bible  it  is  because  it  con- 
demns your  sins.  So  if  you  see  a  man  to-morrow 
talking  against  the  good  book  you  may  know  he 
gets  hit.  Throw  a  stone  among  a  group  of  dogs 
and  the  dog  that  gets  hit  goes  off  yelping  every 
time. 

Take  the  most  faithful  follower  of  Satan  in  Chi- 
cago for  the  last  five  years,  and  take  a  most  faithful 
follower  of  Jesus  Christ  and  let  the  two  stand  on  this 
platform  and  their  very  faces  would  tell  the  story. 

There  is  a  great  joy  in  the  service  of  Christ  that 
the  world  knows  nothing  of,  and  you  never  will 
know  unless  you  taste  it. 

If  you  find  a  man  howling  about  hypocrites,  you 


152  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

just  look  out  for  him,  he  doesn't  live  very  far  from 
one  himself. 

Most  people  have  the  idea  that  a  man  has  got  to 
join  the  church  to  be  a  hypocrite ;  my  friends,  I  will 
find  a  hundred  in  the  world  while  you  find  one  in 
the  church. 

No  man  can  believe  the  Bible  without  purifying 
his  soul. 

I  don't  think  the  prodigal  son  did  much  feeling 
till  he  got  his  feet  under  his  father's  mahogany 
table. 

Let  men  act  up  to  their  convictions  and  what  a 
meeting  we  would  show  you. 

A  man  who  will  let  a  saloon-keeper  or  a  gambler 
or  a  harlot  keep  him  from  what  is  right,  I  greatly 
pity. 

Life  is  very  sweet  to  me,  and  I  can  conceive  of  no 
sweeter  work  than  that  I  am  engaged  in. 

If  your  excuses  will  not  stand  the  light  of  eternity 
throw  them  to  the  four  winds. 

It  is  the  work  of  the  shepherd  to  seek  the  lost. 
Who  ever  heard  of  a  sheep  seeking  a  lost  shep- 
herd? 

I  want  to  tell  you,  if  your  religion  isn't  saving  you 
and  keeping  you  day  by  day  from  sin,  it  is  a  shame, 
it  is  not  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Catholics  have  the  same  Savior  as  the  Protest- 
ants,— one  shepherd,  one  Christ. 

The  difficulty  with  a  great  many  churches  is  that 
there  are  too  many  stumps  in  the  way  of  the  plough. 

Knowledge  is  certainly  better  than  feelings. 

If  you  want  results,  just  pray. 

There  is  only  one  thing  that  will  thoroughly  sat- 
isfy a  longing  heart,  and  that  is  Jesus  Christ. 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  155 

You  never  saw  a  millionaire  in  your  life,  who  was 
satisfied. 

You  know  sheep  never  lie  down  to  rest  until  they 
get  enough  to  eat  and  drink. 

I  believe  that  where  there  is  one  sermon  preached 
to  the  unconverted,  there  should  be  one  hundred 
preached  to  the  church  members. 
*I  remember  when  I  was  a  boy  I  tised  to  attempt 
to  jump  over  my  shadow,  but  I  never  succeeded  in 
getting  over  it. 

There  are  quite  a  number  of  nameless  characters 
in  the  Scriptures  that  have  shone  very  brightly  in 
this  world  in  the  Scripture. 

There  are  a  good  many  who  have  an  idea  that 
distilling  whiskey  is  all  right  if  they  will  only  give 
their  money  to  the  church. 

A  man  may  erect  a  synagogue  and  still  be  a  black- 
hearted villian. 

Treat  men  as  they  should  be  treated,  and  see  if 
you  do  not  win  their  esteem  and  respect. 

Don't  blow  a  trumpet  and  say  that  you  have  done 
so  much  for  your  servants ;  do  it  kindly  and  quietly. 

If  you  find  a  man  that  has  very  high  thoughts  of 
himself  he  will  have  very  low  thoughts  of  God. 

I  pity  those  men  who  hold  on  with  a  tight  grip  to 
everything  they  have. 

If  you  want  to  show  kindness  to  a  person,  do  it 
while  you  are  living. 

Business  men  can  reach  the  men  employed  by 
them  a  good  deal  better  than  the  minister. 

If  we  are  going  to  get  victory  over  the  world  we 

will  have  to  get  it  through  Christ. 

I  wouldn't  think  of  talking  to  unconverted  men 
9 


156  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

about  overcoming  the  world,  for  it  is  utterly  impoS' 
sible  for  them  to  accomplish  anything. 

Don't  let  any  man  think  that  he  is  going  to  over- 
come his  enemies  without  putting  forth  his  strength 
with  God's  power. 

If  you  were  to  take  a  mill  and  put  it  forty  feet 
above  any  river  in  this  country,  there  isn't  capital 
enough  in  the  world  to  make  that  river  turn  the 
mill ;  but  get  it  down  about  forty  feet  and  then  it 
works. 

When  Abraham  took  his  eyes  off  God  he  was  weak 
like  other  men  and  denied  his  wife. 

It  is  a  very  singular  thing  to  notice  how  the  men 
in  the  Bible,  if  they  have  fallen,  have  generally 
fallen  on  the  strongest  points  of  their  own  charac- 
ters. 

Abraham  was  celebrated  for  his  faith,  and  he  fell 
there ;  but  he  lost  that  faith  and  denied  his  wife. 

Moses  was  noted  for  his  meekness  and  humility, 
he  lost  his  temper  and  God  kept  him  out  of  the 
promised  land.  Elijah  was  honored  for  his  power 
in  prayer  and  his  courage,  but  he  became  a  coward. 
Queen  Jezebel  scared  the  life  nearly  out  of  him. 
Peter  was  noted  for  his  boldness,  and  a  little  maid 
frightened  him  nearly  out  of  his  wits. 

The  most  objectionable  characters  one  meets  are 
those  who  are  attempting  to  walk  by  sight  and  not 
by  faith. 

I  believe  that  a  great  many  Christians  are  over- 
come because  they  don't  know  what  a  terrible  fright 
they  have. 

It  is  no  sign  because  a  man  is  a  Christian  that  he 
is  going  to  overcome  the  world. 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  157 

The  worst  enemy  one  has  to  overcome,  after  all, 
is  oneself. 

I  have  had  more  trouble  with  D.  L.  Moody  than 
with  any  other  man  who  has  ever  crossed  my  path. 

If  one  member  of  the  family  is  constantly  snap- 
ping, the  whole  family  will  soon  be  snapping. 

Christianity  isn't  worth  the  snap  of  a  finger  if  it 
doesn't  straighten  out  characters. 

If  people  ain't  sure  when  you  are  telling  the 
truth,  there  is  something  radically  wrong,  and  you 
had  better  straighten  it  out  at  once. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  who  only  want 
enough  Christianity  to  make  them  respectable. 

There  is  only  one  royal  way,  and  that  is  by  the 
way  of  Calvary. 

There  is  more  said  in  the  Bible  against  covetous- 
ness  than  against  intemperance. 

We  think  when  a  man  gets  drunk  he  is  a  horrid 
monster,  but  a  covetous  man  will  often  be  received 
into  the  church  and  be  put  up  into  office,  who  is  as 
vile  and  black  in  the  sight  of  God  as  any  drunkard. 

You  needn't  be  proud  of  your  face,  for  there  is 
not  one  of  you  but  that  after  ten  days  in  the  grave 
the  worms  would  be  eating  your  body. 

You  must  put  off  the  mortal  to  put  on  immortality. 

Every  time  we  overcome  one  temptation  we  get 
strength  to  overcome  another. 

I  honestly  believe  we  are  down  here  in  school ;  in 
training;  and  if  we  cannot  overcome  we  are  not  fit 
for  God's  service. 

I  am  a  joint  heir  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  you  must 
find  out  how  much  He  is  worth  in  order  to  estimate 
my  wealth. 


158  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

We  are  not  only  heirs  but  joint  heirs,  and  all 
Christ  has  I  have. 

What  we  want  is  a  Christianity  that  goes  into  our 
homes  and  every-day  lives. 

Some  men's  religion  just  makes  me  sick. 

It  is  wrong  for  a  man  or  woman  to  profess  what 
they  don't  possess. 

If  you  are  not  overcoming  temptations,  the  world 
is  overcoming  you. 

Your  ministers  may  preach  like  Gabriel  on  Sun- 
day, but  that  won't  do  any  good  if  you  live  like 
Satan  during  the  week  in  your  homes. 

There  are  a  good  many  people  who  are  delighted 
when  you  talk  about  the  sins  of  the  patriarchs,  and 
other  Bible  characters,  but  when  you  come  here  and 
touch  upon  the  sins  of  this  city  that  is  another  thing. 

Did  you  ever  notice  that  all  but  the  heart  of  man 
praises  God?  If  you  look  right  through  history,  you 
will  find  that  everything  but  the  heart  of  man  obeys 
God. 

Now  if  you  want  to  get  near  God,  just  obey  Him, 

Obedience  is  a  matter  of  the  heart. 

He  takes  those  into  the  nearest  communion  with 
Himself  who  just  obey  Him. 

The  man  or  woman  that  is  nearest  to  God  is  the 
man  or  woman  that  is  just  obeying  Him, 

My  dear  friends,  as  long  as  we  are  living  a  dis- 
obedient life,  we  cannot  do  a  thing  to  please  God. 

What  the  Lord  wants  is  not  what  you  have  got, 
but  yourself,  and  you  cannot  do  a  thing  to  please 
God  until  you  surrender  yourself  to  Him. 

I  believe  the  wretchedness  and  misery  and  woe  in 
our  American  cities  to-day  comes  from  disobedience 
to  God. 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  159 

There  is  a  great  reward  in  keeping  God's  laws 
and  statutes,  but  a  great  curse  upon  them  that  will 
disobey  God. 

People  don't  like  to  read  legal  documents;  but  if 
you  are  mentioned  in  the  will  it  becomes  instantly 
very  interesting  reading. 

If  you  haven't  any  faith  in  a  doctor,  you  don't 
want  him  in  the  house,  you  wouldn't  commit  the 
life  of  your  child  into  his  hands. 

Faith  is  the  foundation  of  all  social  intercourse. 

You  might  as  well  ask  a  man  to  hear  without  ears, 
see  without  eyes,  walk  without  feet,  as  to  ask  a  man 
to  believe  without  giving  him  something  to  believe. 

A  creed  is  the  road  or  street.  It  is  very  good  as 
far  as  it  goes  but  if  it  doesn't  take  us  to  Christ  it  is 
worthless. 

I  don't  believe  any  man  is  so  constituted  that  he 
can  not  believe  God  if  he  wants  to. 

Put  your  finger  on  a  promise  that  God  has  made 
to  man  that  he  hasn't  kept,  and  then  we  will  talk 
about  not  believing  Him. 

When  a  man  says  he  can  not  believe  himself,  but 
can  believe  in  God,  then  he  is  on  the  right  road. 

The  trouble  is,  people  who  don't  know  what  the 
Bible  says  say  they  cannot  believe  it. 

There  are  a  lot  of  people  running  around  who 
haven't  got  any  roots. 

A  good  many  people  live  on  negations.  They  are 
always  telling  what  they  don't  believe. 

The  best  illustration  of  faith  is  a  little  child.  She 
never  bothers  her  head  as  to  where  she  is  going  to 
get  her  breakfast  or  supper. 

I  believe  that  faith  grows  like  every  other  thing. 
You  only  have  to  water  and  feed  it. 


160  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

There  is  nothing  to  hinder  you  from  being  saved 
but  your  own  will. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  living  on  a  few 
chapters  and  verses.  They  don't  take  the  whole  of 
the  Bible. 

You  cannot  touch  Jesus  Christ  anywhere  that 
there  is  not  something  supernatural  about  Him. 

I  don't  like  these  gilt-edged  Bibles  that  look  like 
they  had  never  been  used. 

I  earnestly  believe  that  this  old  world  has  swung 
out  in  the  cold  and  dark  and  will  never  swing  back 
until  the  truth  dawns  upon  it,  that  "God  is  love." 

You  take  a  man  or  woman  and  make  them  believe 
that  there  is  no  one  in  the  wide  world  that  loves  or 
cares  for  them,  and  they  would  rather  die  than  live. 
That  is  the  class  that  commits  suicide. 

The  thing  we  prize  above  everything  else  in  this 
world  is  love,  and  that  is  what  God  prizes  above 
everything  else. 

There  isn't  a  commandment  that  hasn't  come 
from  the  loving  heart  of  God,  and  what  He  wants  is 
to  have  us  give  up  that  which  is  going  to  mar  our  hap- 
piness in  this  life  and  the  life  to  come. 

There  is  no  book  after  all  that  will  draw  people 
like  the  Bible. 

Don't  get  a  Bible  so  good  that  you  will  be  afraid 
to  carry  it  for  fear  you  will  soil  it. 

There  are  a  great  many  people  vPho  know  only 
what  they  hear  from  other  people. 

A  good  way  to  study  the  Bible  is  to  take  one  book 
at  a  time.  I  know  some  people  who  never  sit  down 
to  read  a  book  until  they  have  time  to  read  the 
whole  of  it. 

Justification  is  what  turned  Martin  Luther  inside 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  161 

out.  The  truth  dawned  upon  him  as  he  went  up 
those  stairs  in  Rome. 

I  believe  a  man  may  come  in  here  a  thief  and  go 
out  a  saint.  I  believe  a  man  may  come  in  here  as 
vile  as  Hell  itself  and  go  out  saved. 

I  honestly  believe  that  the  greatest  mistake  we 
are  making  in  this  country  is  that  we  don't  have 
more  expository  preaching. 

I  never  saw  anyone  that  kept  the  Sabbath  and 
reverenced  God's  sanctuary  who  didn't  prosper.  I 
have  never  seen  a  man  desert  the  house,  the  law,  or 
the  statutes  of  God,  but  that  he  grew  lean. 

I  believe  the  reason  so  many  people  are  having 
such  hard  times  now  is  because  they  have  wandered 
into  sin. 

The  kiss  of  Judas  wounded  the  heart  of  the  Son 
of  God  a  good  deal  more  than  the  Roman  spear  did. 

The  wife  that  lets  down  the  standard  in  order  to 
reach  her  husband  always  loses  ground. 

When  you  see  a  Christian  minister  making  the 
ungodly  people  in  his  congregation  his  society,  look 
out  for  him. 

When  you  see  a  man  or  woman  in  your  church 
that  would  rather  be  with  the  ungodly  than  with 
God's  people  look  out  for  their  piety.  It  isn't  skin 
deep. 

Did  you  ever  think  of  the  yards  and  yards  of  talk 
that  you  hear  that  doesn't  amount  to  anything? 

There  are  many  Christians  in  the  world  about 
waist  deep,  and  then  they  wonder  why  they  haven't 
any  power  or  influence. 

Don't  let  the  world  get  hold  of  you.  Keep  it 
under. 

Let  every  man  use  the  talent  God  has  given  him. 


162  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

Don't  be  mourning  because  you  haven't  more, 
but  just  take  what  you  have  and  go  to  work. 

If  you  can  reach  a  man  by  taking  him  to  the  Epis- 
copal church,  take  him  to  the  Episcopal  church.  If 
you  can  reach  him  by  taking  him  to  the  Baptist 
church,  take  him  to  the  Baptist  church.  Never 
mind  about  the  creeds  and  doctrines.  Never  mind 
about  these  names,  they  are  nothing.  What  we 
want  is  to  get  him  above  these  party  walls. 

It  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  convict  of  sin. 

I  have  seen  people  who,  when  the  spirit  of  God 
has  been  working  mightily,  would  get  up  and  go 
out  and  slam  the  door  after  them  in  a  bad  passion. 
Not  a  bad  sign. 

A  great  many  are  always  trying  to  make  them- 
selves love  God.  You  cannot  do  it.  Love  must  be 
spontaneous.  You  cannot  love  by  trying  to  make 
yourself  love. 

You  never  in  your  life  saw  a  man  full  of  God  who 
wasn't  fullof  Scripture. 

I  don't  know  what  angel  it  was  that  got  down  to 
the  plains  to  tell  the  shepherds  that  Christ  had  come, 
but  I  have  an  idea  that  it  was  Gabriel. 

I  believe  John  Wesley  did  as  much  good  as  Charles. 
One  preached  and  the  other  sung  the  gospel  halfway 
around  the  world  in  a  very  short  time. 

I  don't  believe  that  any  four  walls  are  going  to 
hold  any  man's  influence. 

I  think  one  of  the  most  lamentable  things  of  this 
day  is  that  Satan  can  walk  right  into  some  of  our 
best  Christian  homes  and  families  and  haul  the  chil- 
dren down  into  the  deepest  and  darkest  depths,  and 
we  haven't  got  the  power  to  reach  them  and  bring 
them  back. 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  163 

A  good  many  are  trying  to  work  with  the  anoint- 
ing they  got  many  years  ago. 

There  are  a  lot  of  Samsons  around  who  have  lost 
their  hair.  How  many  sermons  have  you  heard  of 
which  you  cannot  remember  a  single  word? 

When  the  Spirit  of  God  is  in  a  man  the  fire  just 
burns. 

I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  idea  if  we  ask  God 
to  do  a  certain  work  He  is  going  to  give  us  chaff  in 
return. 

Sometimes  when  I  have  prayed  it  has  seemed  as 
if  the  Heavens  were  closed  over  me. 

I  have  often  said  I  had  rather  be  able  to  pray  like 
Daniel  than  preach  like  Gabriel. 

I  am  sometimes  ashamed  of  myself  to  think  how 
fluent  I  am  when  I  go  into  the  presence  of  God. 
As  if  God  was  on  an  equal  footing  with  me,  or 
rather  as  if  I  was  on  an  equal  footing  with  God — as 
if  there  was  no  difference  between  us. 

One  of  the  truest  signs  that  a  man  is  growing 
great  is  that  God  increases  and  he  decreases. 

The  next  true  element  to  prayer  is  restitution. 

It  is  folly  for  us  to  ask  God  to  do  something  for 
us  that  we  can  do  for  ourselves. 

Let  us  look  out  that  we  are  not  one  of  the  class 
who  come  to  the  Lord  constantly  for  favors  and 
never  thank  Him. 

This  is  one  the  sweetest  promises  Christ  left  for 
us.  "Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose 
mind  is  stayed  on  Thee,  because  he  trusteth  in 
Thee." 

If  I  wanted  to  find  a  man  who  had  rest  I  would 

not  go  among  the  very  wealthy. 
10 


164  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

The  man  or  woman  that  is  looking  after  the  last 
fashion  doesn't  get  rest  to  his  soul. 

Some  people  go  back  into  the  past  and  rake  up  all 
the  troubles  they  ever  had,  and  then  they  look  into 
the  future  and  anticipate  that  they  will  have  still 
more  trouble,  and  then  they  go  reeling  and  stagger- 
ing all  through  life. 

About  the  first  thing  a  mother  does  is  to  teach 
her  child  to  look. 

I  tell  you  I  had  rather  have  ten  thousand  enemies 
outside  than  one  inside. 

The  moment  we  begin  to  rob  God  then  darkness 
and  misery  and  wretchedness  will  come. 

It  is  very  easy  to  talk  about  revivals,  but  do  you 
know  that  there  is  not  a  denomination  that  hasn't 
sprung  out  of  revivals? 

I  venture  to  say  there  is  many  a  church  where 
four-fifths  of  the  members  were  converted  during 
revivals. 

I  believe  whenever  you  see  a  Christian  man's  chil- 
dren turn  out  wrong,  a  good  deal  of  the  fault  lies  at 
his  own  door. 

There  is  one  thing  about  a  back-slider,  he  is 
always  finding  fault  with  church  members. 

I  will  challenge  you  to  find  a  father  or  mother 
that  has  back-slidden  whose  children  haven't  gone 
to  ruin. 

I  think  the  hardest  people  to  reach  are  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  back-sliders. 

That  Pharisee  that  went  up  to  the  temple  to  pray 
with  the  poor  publican,  did  he  know  anything  about 
meekness? 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  165 

You  put  a  man  that  has  been  living  in  wickedness 
and  sin  in  the  crystal  pavement,  and  it  would  be 
Hell  to  him. 

You  may  look  at  your  little  innocent  child,  but 
remember  that  a  separation  is  going  to  come.  If 
that  child  dies  in  early  childhood,  the  Master  will 
take  it  to  Himself,  and  you  will  not  be  permitted  to 
sit  in  the  kingdom  with  that  child  until  you  are 
born  again. 

When  God  speaks  you  and  I  can  afford  to  listen. 

I  pity  any  man  that  goes  into  the  pulpit  and  picks 
that  old  Bible  to  pieces. 

I  have  noticed  that  when  a  man  does  begin  to 
pick  the  Bible  to  pieces  it  doesn't  take  him  more 
than  five  years  to  tear  it  all  to  pieces.  What  is  the 
use  of  being  five  years  about  what  you  can  do  in  five 
minutes? 

I  am  not  here  to  defend  the  Bible.  It  will  take 
care  of  itself. 

I  want  to  say  to  any  scoffer  that  has  come  in  here 
to-day,  you  can  laugh  at  that  old  Bible,  you  can 
scoff  at  your  mother's  God,  you  can  laugh  at  min- 
isters and  Christians,  but  the  hour  is  coming  when 
one  promise  in  that  old  book  will  be  worth  more  to 
you  than  ten  thousand  worlds  like  this. 

It  is  an  old  saying,  "Get  the  lamb  and  you  will 
get  the  sheep."  I  gave  that  up  years  ago.  Give 
me  the  sheep  and  then  I  will  have  some  one  to  nurse 
the  lambs. 

It  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  me  that  a  woman 
can  turn  against  the  Son  of  God,  for  there  is  not  a 
country  to-day  where  Christ  is  not  preached  where 
woman  is  not  a  slave  or  a  toy. 

I  said  when  I  was  in  Jerusalem  that  if  I  had  my 


166  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

choice,  in  a  Mohammedan  country,  of  being  born  a 
woman  or  a  donkey  I  would  rather  be  a  donkey,  for 
it  is  treated  better  than  a  woman. 

Every  day  you  put  it  off  you  are  going  back  from 
God,  and  are  making  it  harder  for  you  to  be  saved. 

Nations  are  only  collections  of  individuals,  and 
what  is  true  of  part  in  regard  to  character  is  always 
true  of  the  whole. 

It  is  a  great  deal  better  to  judge  our  own  acts  and 
confess  them,  than  go  through  the  world  with  a 
curse  upon  us. 

It  is  not  mere  gush  and  sentiment  this  nation 
wants,  so  much  as  it  is  a  revival  of  downright  hon- 
esty. 

A  man  once  said  he  had  a  good  well,  only  it  would 
dry  up  in  summer  and  freeze  up  in  winter.  Some 
Christians  are  just  like  that  well,  good  at  certain 
times. 

It  is  doing  a  thousand  times  more  harm  than  all 
the  lectures  of  infidels  to  hear  Christians  say,  "This 
and  this  isn't  inspired.  " 

We  want  to  believe  the  whole  Bible.  We  want 
to  take  the  whole  of  it,  from  Genesis  to  Revelation. 

I  believe  that  for  years  after  the  death  of  Christ 
the  air  was  full  of  the  words  which  fell  from  His 
lips. 

I  have  a  good  deal  of  sympathy  with  that  old  col- 
ored woman  who  said  if  the  Bible  said  Jonah  swal- 
lowed the  whale  she  would  believe  it;  God  could 
make  a  man  large  enough  to  swallow  a  whale. 

The  best  way  to  convert  an  infidel  is  to  take  him 
to  the  prophecies  fulfilled. 

I'm  glad  there  are  things  in  the  Bible  that  I  don't 
understand.     If  I  could  take  that  book  up  and  read 


MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS.  167 

it  as  I  would  any  other  book,  I  might  think  I  could 
write  a  book  like  that,  and  so  could  you.  I'm  glad 
there  are  heights  I  haven't  been  able  to  climb  up 
to.  I  am  glad  there  are  depths  I  haven't  been  able 
to  fathom.  It's  the  best  proof  that  the  book  came 
from  God. 

I  believe  that  God  would  have  created  a  world 
rather  than  that  any  prophecy  should  be  unfulfilled. 

Dozens  of  people  have  repented  who  don't  know 
what  repentance  is. 

Lots  of  people  think  repentance  is  going  to  strike 
them  like  lightning. 

I  have  learned  that  sometimes  the  medicine  people 
don't  like  to  take  may  be  the  very  best  medicine  for 
them. 

Lots  of  people  think  they  can  go  to  heaven  on  a 
good  moral  character. 

Look  at  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son.  I  would 
rather  be  the  younger  brother  than  the  other.  The 
elder  brother  had  what  the  world  calls  a  moral  char- 
acter, and  yet  I  think  he  was  about  the  meanest  case 
in  the  whole  Bible. 

I  think  the  best  book  on  Assurance  is  the  first 
Epistle  of  John. 

For  men  who  have  nothing  but  essays  it  is  hard  to 
get  pulpits,   and  it  will  be  harder  in  years  to  come. 

The  reason  there  are  so  many  pulpits  vacant  is 
that  there  arn't  men  enough  willing  to  give  the  word 
of  God. 

A  great  many  churches  have  mere  exhortations 
all  the  time,  and  it  gets  very  tiresome. 

I  don't  believe  there  is  any  place  in  the  world 
where  error  has  such  a  slim  chance  of  getting  a  hold 
as  in  Scotland.      The  Scotch  are  a  most  wonderful 


168  MR.  MOODY'S  CRISP  SAYINGS. 

people.  You've  got  to  be  careful  in  preaching  to 
them,  or  the  first  thing  you  know  some  old  woman 
will  come  up  with  her  Bible  under  her  shawl,  and 
say:  "Here;  you  said  so  and  so.  The  Bible  says 
so  and  so."  If  you  make  a  misquotation,  a  Scotch- 
man will  straighten  you  right  up;  but  you  might 
make  forty  misquotations  in  American  churches  and 
no  one  would  know  the  difference. 

In  Scotland  a  minister  doesn't  think  of  preaching 
till  everybody  has  found  the  text. 

If  we  had  more  of  the  word  of  God  there-  would 
be  fewer  defalcations  and  scandals  inside  the 
church. 

It  seems  to  me  the  time  is  coming  when  there 
should  be  a  change  in  the  churches  of  God  in  this 
land. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


TYPICAL  ANECDOTES. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  anecdotes  related 
by  Mr.  Moody  at  Cooper  Union  meeting,  New 
York,  November  20,  1896. 

A  man  went  out  of  the  jail  at  Chicago  to  go  to 
Joliet  to  serve  a  seven  years'  sentence,'  and  a  friend 
put  a  religious  book  into  his  hand,  while  he  was  in 
the  jail  at  Chicago.  Some  time  after  he  had  gone  to 
Joliet  this  friend  visited  him,  and  found  that  the 
cover  of  his  little  book  was  nearly  worn  off,  and  he 
had  sewed  it  on  with  thread,  and  the  book  was  pretty 
well  worn  out.  His  friend  noticed  that  he  had  nine- 
teen names  written  on  the  back  of  the  book,  and  he 
inquired  "What  have  you  got  those  names  there  for?" 
"Well,"  the  prisoner  replied,  "those  are  the  names 
of  prisoners  who  have  read  this  book."  "But  here 
is  a  cross  against  three  of  them;  what  does  that 
mean?"  said  his  friend.  "Oh,"  he  said,  "those  are 
my  brothers."  "What  do  you  mean  by  that?" 
"Well,"  he  sajd,  "I  read  that  book  in  the  jail  in 
Chicago  and  was  converted,  and  I  thought  when  I 
came  down  here  I  would  try  and  get  some  more  con- 
verts, and  I  have  loaned  that  book  to  nineteen 
prisoners,  and  when  any  prisoner  tells  me  he  is  con- 
verted, I  put  a  cross  against  his  name. ' '  Pretty  good 
investment,  was  it  not?     The  book  cost  less  than  ten 

""^'''  169 


170  TYPICAL  ANECDOTES. 

My  son  was  speaking  down  at  Brockton,  Mass., 
the  other  Sunday.  You  see  I  have  got  him  stirred 
up,  and  the  secretary  of  the  Christian  Association 
said  to  him  when  the  meeting  was  over,  "Perhaps 
you  will  be  interested  in  something  that  occurred  in 
our  rooms  a  little  while  ago.  A  young  man,  quite 
a  nice  looking  fellow,  came  in  and  wanted  to  know 
if  I  could  not  give  him  work.  I  told  him  I  could  not. 
He  was  from  out  of  town,  and  I  thought  if  I  could 
find  work  for  anyone  I  ought  to  put  it  in  the  hands 
of  some  man  of  Brockton,  and  he  turned  away  with 
a  look  on  his  face  that  kind  of  haunted  me,  and  so  I 
called  him  back  and  said : 

"Look  here,  my  friend,  you  seem  to  be  quite  dis- 
appointed. I  have  some  colporter's  books  here.  I 
want  you  to  take  them  and  go  out  on  the  street  and 
try  to  sell  them. ' '  The  young  man  colored  up,  and 
I  said,  "Do  you  mean  that  you  are  ashamed  to  sell 
those  books?"  He  replied,  "Oh,  no;  that  very  book 
you  hold  in  your  hand  was  given  to  me  in  jail,  and 
it  led  me  to  Jesus 'Christ,  and  when  I  got  out,  I 
thought  I  would  leave  my  own  country  and  neigh- 
borhood and  go  among  strangers  and  start  life  anew, 
and  when  I  went  to  your  place  and  saw  the  Christian 
Association,  I  thought  maybe  they  could  find  some- 
thing for  me  to  do,  so  that  I  could  get  among  Chris- 
tian people."  So  that  young  man  took  the  books 
and  went  out  on  the  street  and  sold  them  right  and 
left,  and  a  business  man  noticed  him  and  liked  the 
way  he  worked,  and  he  hired  him  and  gave  him 
steady  employment;  so  you  see,  my  friends,  it  is  a 
very  good  investment. 

Some  Englishmen  went  to  Africa  a  good  many 
years  ago  to  colonize.     They  came  to  a  beautiful 


o      5 


TYPICAL  ANECDOTES.  173 

spot,  and  thought  it  would  be  a  good  place  to  estab- 
lish a  town,  and  after  they  had  decided  to  stay  there, 
^they  asked  a  native  if  there  was  plenty  of  rain  there 
the  year  round.  The  native  said  no,  that  there 
were  a  few  months  in  the  year  when  everything 
dried  up,  so  they  thought  that  would  not  do, 
and  they  went  on  to  another  place  that  looked  invit- 
ing, and  they  asked  a  native  how  it  was  there  about 
the  rain,  and  the  native  told  them  that  in  certain 
months  everything  dried  up.  Well,  that  would  not 
do,  and  they  went  to  a  third  place,  and  made  the 
same  inquiry,  and  the  reply  was  that  the  clouds 
were  pierced  the  year  round  and  everything  was 
beautiful  and  green,  and  the  Englishmen  decided  to 
stay  there,  and  they  founded  a  town  and  flourished. 
So  we  want  to  keep  right  under  the  pierced  clouds 
all  the  time. 

I  remember  the  first  time  I  went  to  California.  I 
dropped  down  out  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  mountains, 
where  the  snow  was  forty  feet  deep,  into  the  Sacra- 
mento valley,  where  it  was  like  midsummer,  and  I 
saw  ranches  that  were  perfectly  beautiful,  every- 
thing green  and  luxurious,  and  where  everything 
seemed  to  be  flourishing,  but  sometimes  right  across 
a  fence  I  would  see  another  ranch  where  there  was 
nothing  green  and  everything  seemed  to  have  dried 
up.  I  said  to  a  gentleman  in  the  train,  "I  do  not 
understand  this,  what  does  it  mean?  There  is  a 
ranch  that  is  green  and  flourishing,  and  there  is  an- 
other that  has  nothing  green  about  it.  It  looks  dried 
up."  "Oh,"  said  he,  "you  are  a  stranger  here." 
I  said,  "Yes,  that  was  my  first  visit."  "Well,"  he 
said,  "that  man  there  irrigates  and  brings  the  water 
down  from  the   mountains,  and  in  consequence  he 


174  TYPICAL  ANECDOTES. 

raises  two  or  three  crops  a  year,  while  the  man  that 
owns  the  other  ranch,  does  not  raise  hardly  any- 
thing, because  he  does  not  irrigate."  In  many, 
churches  you  will  find  men  and  women  as  dry  as 
Gideon's  fleece.  Some  people  will  come  and  go  and 
occupy  the  same  pew  for  forty  years  and  not  move 
an  inch.  Another  man  right  close  to  him  is  active 
and  bright,  and  everything  he  touches  seems  to 
grow ;  the  breath  of  God  seems  to  be  upon  him. 

When  I  was  a  young  man  and  preached  out  in  the 
West — I  was  a  commercial  traveler  then — I  would 
go  into  a  little  town  and  hold  a  meeting  in  a  log 
schoolhouse,  when  some  old  gentleman  would  say, 
"This  young  brother  from  Chicago  will  speak  here 
this  evening  at  early  candle  light,"  and  the  first 
person  that  came  would  bring  an  old  dingy  lantern 
and  stick  it  up  on  a  bench — even  an  old  lantern  with 
old  oil  and  a  wick,  you  know,  gives  out  consider- 
able light  after  all  on  a  dark  night — and  the  next 
person  that  came,  an  old  woman,  perhaps,  would 
bring  along  a  sperm  candle,  and  then  would  come 
an  old  farmer  with  another  candle,  and  they  would 
stick  them  up  on  the  desks,  and  they  would  sputter 
away  there,  yet  all  the  time  giving  a  good  deal  of 
light,  and  do  you  know,  by  the  time  the  people  got 
together  there  in  that  old  school  house  we  had  plenty 
of  light.  Now,  it  can  be  just  so  here  in  New  York; 
there  are  Christians  enough  here  to  light  up  the 
whole  city. 

You  remember  that  it  was  revealed  to  Elijah  that 
he  should  be  caught  up  into  heaven.  He  was  with 
Elisha  at  Gilgal,  and  he  said  to  Elisha,  "Let  us  go 
to  Bethel  and  see  how  the  prophets  are  getting 
along."     They  had  a  sort  of  theological  seminary 


TYPICAL  ANECDOTES.  175 

down  there,  as  it  were.  Well,  Elijah  and  Elisha 
went  to  Bethel,  and  I  suppose  their  arrival  created 
no  small  stir  among  those  young  prophets,  for  it  had 
been  revealed  to  them  that  Elijah  was  to  be  taken 
away,  and  one  of  them  got  Elisha  off  alone,  as  I  can 
imagine,  and  whispered  to  him,  "Do  you  know  that 
your  man  is  to  be  taken  away?"  "Sh!  sh !  hold  your 
peace,"  said  Elisha,  "I  know  all  about  it. "  Pres- 
ently, Elijah  said  to  Elisha,  "You  stay  here  now, 
and  I'll  go  down  to  Jericho  and  see  how  the  prophets 
are  getting  along  there,"  for  there  was  another  the- 
ological seminary  down  there,  but  Elisha  would  not 
let  him  go  alone,  and  went  with  him.  When  they 
got  down  there,  another  prophet  got  Elisha  to  one 
side  and  said,  "Do  you  know  that  Elijah  is  to  be 
taken  away?"  "Yes,  I  know  all  about  it,"  said  Eli- 
sha; "keep  still,  do  not  say  anything. "  Presently, 
Elijah  turned  to  Elisha  and  said,  "Elisha,  you  stay 
here  with  the  prophets,  and  I  will  go  over  to  the 
Jordan  and  worship."  Elisha  said,  "As  the  Lord 
liveth  and  as  I  live,  you  will  not  go  without  me. ' ' 
He  tried  to  leave  him  up  there  at  Bethel,  and  he 
would  not  be  left,  and  I  can  imagine  him  locking 
arms  with  Elijah  and  going  along  with  him,  as  they 
started  to  the  Jordan  together.  I  was  in  Palestine 
some  time  ago,  and  oh,  how  I  longed  to  see  the 
very  spot  where  those  two  men  crossed  the  Jordan  ; 
as  they  passed  along  down  the  valley  and  came  to 
the  river,  Elijah  took  off  his  mantle  and  waved  it, 
and  the  waters  began  to  recede  on  either  side  of 
them  and  piled  up  higher  and  higher,  and  they 
stepped  down  into  the  bed  of  the  river  and  crossed, 
and  climbed  up  the  bank  on  the  eastern  side,  and 
passed  out  into  the  desert.     And  by-and-by  the  two 


176  TYPICAL  ANECDOTES. 

men  disappeared.  I  had  wished  that  their  whole 
conversation  had  been  put  on  record,  but,  alas,  there 
came  a  whirlwind  which  caught  up  the  sand  and  dirt 
and  drove  it  into  their  eyes,  and  the  two  men  got 
separated,  but  before  they  were  separated,  Elijah 
turned  to  Elisha  and  said,  "What  is  it  that  you  want?" 
I  tried  to  leave  you  back  there  at  Bethel,  but  you 
would  not  stay.  Make  your  petition  known.  What- 
ever you  ask  I  will  grant  it. "  I  think  if  some  of  our 
millionaires  in  New  York  should  ask  me  to  make  my 
petition  known  to  them,  that  they  would  grant  it, 
I  would  draw  on  them  for  enough  money  to  support 
my  schools  at  Northfield.  I  would  not  be  afraid  to 
make  my  petition  known,  and  I  would  get  a  big 
draft. 

But,  as  I  said,  this  whirlwind  separated  the  two 
men.  The  Master  was  going  to  take  Elijah  away, 
and  I  can  imagine  Elisha  getting  the  sand  and  dust 
out  of  his  eyes  and  exclaiming,  "Where  is  my  mas- 
ter?" and  looking  in  all  directions  for  him,  and  sud- 
denly he  looked  up  and  saw  a  flame  of  fire  ,  and  he 
cried  out,  "My  Father,  my  Father,"  and  "the  cha- 
riot of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof."  Elijah 
remembered  his  promise  as  Elisha  called  to  him, 
and  he  took  off  his  mantle  and  threw  it  back,  and 
Elisha  took  off  his  old  mantle  and  rent  it. 

When  Mr.  Moody  was  asked  at  the  last  service  in 
Cooper  Union  whether  he  was  satisfied  with  his 
New  York  campaign,  he  replied:  "Satisfied,  I  am 
not  satisfied.  I  did  not  come  to  New  York  to  reach 
sinners,  but  to  reach  Christians.  I  wish  them  to 
live  on  a  higher  plane,  to  be  comforted  to  the  image 
of  Christ.  If  that  result  has  not  been  reached,  my 
work  here  will  be  of  little  avail,  and  the  result  will 


TYPICAL  ANECDOTES.  177 

soon  pass  away  like  a  cloud. ' '  For  five  weeks  Mr. 
Moody  preached  twice  a  day,  five  days  in  the  week 
in  Cooper  Union,  to  audiences  which  taxed  the  re- 
sources of  that  large  hall  to  its  utmost  seating  capa- 
city, and  sometimes  its  standing  capacity.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  meetings,  he  preached  every  Sunday  in 
November  and  December  in  Carnegie  Music  Hall. 

"Remember  the  Sabbath  day  and  keep  it  holy." 
Now,  I  come  to  the  Sunday  newspapers.  I  would 
not  touch  a  Sunday  newspaper  any  more  than  I 
would  touch  tar.  If  there  are  any  attacks  on  me 
next  Sunday  I  won't  see  them,  for  if  anyone  sends 
me  a  Sunday  newspaper,  I  always  tear  it  up.  Noth- 
ing is  doing  more  damage  to  the  church  and  God 
than  the  Sunday  newspaper.  The  papers  abuse 
Tammany,  but  Tammany  never  did  one-fourth  as 
much  harm  in  this  city  as  have  the  Sunday  newspa- 
pers. There  are  about  twenty-five  thousand  divorces 
every  year  in  the  United  States.  Many  of  them  are 
directly  due  to  the  Sunday  newspapers,  which  pub- 
lish accounts  of  divorces  in  all  their  details.  The 
Sunday  newspapers  are  responsible  for  many  sui- 
cides and  murders.  All  the  theaters  in  Chicago  are 
open  on  Sunday,  as  the  result  of  the  Sunday  news- 
papers. In  Chicago  men  are  knocked  down  and 
robbed  in  open  daylight.  Murders  occur  every 
day.  Masked  men  go  into  stores  and  rob  them. 
There  is  not  a  divorce  case  which  is  full  of  filth, 
there  is  not  a  case  of  adultery  which  the  Sunday 
newspapers  do  not  rake  up  and  publish.  The  Angel 
Gabriel  could  not  be  heard  by  the  Sunday  newspaper 
readers.  Now,  how  many  will  swear  that  they  will 
never  again  read  a  Sunday  newspaper? 

Once  on  a  battlefield,   Napoleon's  horse  became 


178  TYPICAL  ANECDOTES. 

frightened,  and  a  private  jumped  from  the  ranks 
and  grasped  the  bridle  and  quieted  him.  Napoleon 
looked  at  the  soldier  and  said,  '  'Thank  you,  cap- 
tain."  "Of  what  company,  sire?"  asked  the  soldier. 
With  a  moment's  hesitation,  "The  life  guards," 
said  Napol-eon.  The  soldier  went  at  once  to  the  life 
guards  and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  com- 
pany. The  officers  were  going  to  put  him  under 
arrest;  but  he  told  them  he  was  captain.  "Who 
said  so?"  demanded  the  officers.  "He  said  so," 
replied  the  soldier,  pointing  to  Napoleon.  If  God 
says  a  thing  in  this  book,  you  lay  hold  of  it  and  be- 
lieve without  question. 

There  is  a  man  living  in  this  city,  who  has  a  home 
on  the  Hudson  river.  His  daughter  and  her  family 
went  to  spend  the  winter  Vvnth  him,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  season  the  scarlet  fever  broke  out.  One  little 
girl  was  put  in  quarantine,  to  be  kept  separate  from 
the  rest.  Every  morning  the  old  grandfather  used  to 
go  upstairs  and  bid  his  grandchild  good-bye  before 
going  to  his  business.  On  one  of  these  occasions  the 
little  thing  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  leading  him 
to  a  corner  of  the  room,  without  saying  a  word,  she 
pointed  to  the  floor  where  she  had  arranged  some 
crackers,  so  they  would  spell  out  "Grandpa,  I  want 
a  box  of  paints. "  He  said  nothing.  On  his  return 
he  hung  up  his  overcoat,  and  went  to  the  room  as 
usual,  when  his  little  grandchild,  without  looking  to 
see  if  her  wish  had  been  complied  with,  took  him  to 
the  same  corner  v/here  he  spelled  out  in  the  same 
way,  "Grandpa,  I  thank  you  for  the  box  of  paints." 
Don't  you  think  the  old  gentleman  was  pleased  with 
the  faith  his  little  grandchild  had  in  him? 

I  had  a  large  Sunday-school  in  Chicago  with  twelve 


TYPICAL  ANECDOTES.  179 

or  fifteen  hundred  scholars.  I  was  very  much  pleased 
with  the  numbers.  If  the  attendance  kept  up,  I  was 
pleased,  but  I  didn't  see  a  convert.  I  was  not  look- 
ing for  conversions.  There  was  one  class  in  a  corner 
of  the  large  hall  made  up  of  young  women,  who 
caused  more  trouble  than  any  other  class  in  the 
school.  There  was  only  one  man  who  could  ever 
manage- that  class  and  keep  it  in  order.  If  he  could 
keep  the  class  quieted,  it  was  about  as  much  as  we 
could  hope  for.  One  day  this  teacher  was  missing, 
and  I  taught  the  class.  The  girls  laughed  in  my 
face.  I  never  felt  so  tempted  to  turn  anyone  from 
Sunday-school  as  those  girls;  never  saw  such  frivol- 
ous girls.  I  couldn't  make  any  impression  on  them. 
The  next  day  the  teacher  came  into  the  store.  I 
noticed  that  he  looked  very  pale,  and  I  asked  him 
what  was  the  trouble.  "I  have  been  bleeding  at  the 
lungs,"  he  said,  "and  the  doctor  said  I  cannot  live. 

I  must  give  up  my  class  and  go  back  to  my  wid- 
owed mother  in  New  York  State. '"'  As  he  spoke, 
his  chin  quivered,  and  the  tears  began  to  fall.  I 
said  I  was  sorry,  and  added,  ''You  are  not  afraid  of 
death,  are  you?"  "Oh,  no,  I  am  not  afraid  to  die; 
but  I  shall  soon  stand  before  my  Master.  What 
shall  I  tell  Him  of  my  class.  Not  one  of  them  is  a 
Christian,     I  have  made  a  failure  of  my  work." 

I  have  never  heard  anyone  speak  in  that  way, 
and  I  said,  "Why  not  visit  every  girl  and  ask  her  to 
become  a  Christian?"  "I  am  very  weak,"  he  said, 
"too  weak  to  walk."  I  offered  to  take  a  carriage 
and  go  with  him.  He  consented,  and  we  started 
out.  Going  first  to  one  house  and  then  to  another, 
the  pale  teacher  sometimes  leaning  on  my  arm,  he 
saw  each  girl,  and  calling  her  by  name,  Mary,  or 


180  TYPICAL  ANECDOTES. 

Martha,  or  whatever  it  was,  he  asked  her  to  become 
a  Christian,  telling  her  he  was  going  home  to  die, 
and  that  he  wanted  to  know  that  his  scholars  had 
given  their  hearts  to  God.  Then  he  would  pray 
with  her,  and  I  would  pray  with  her;  so  we  went 
from  house  to  house,  and  after  he  used  up  all  his 
strength,  I  would  take  him  home,  and  the  next  day 
we  would  go  out  again.  Sometimes  he  went  alone. 
At  the  end  of  ten  days  .he  came  to  the  store,  his  face 
beaming  with  joy.  "The  last  girl  has  yielded  her 
heart  to  Christ.  I  am  going  home  to  New  York. 
I  have  done  all  that  I  can  do,  and  my  work  is  done. " 
I  asked  when  he  was  going,  and  he  said,  "To- 
morrow night."  I  said,  "Would  you  like  to  see 
your  class  together  before  you  go?"  He  said  he 
would,  and  I  asked  if  he  thought  the  landlady  would 
allow  the  use  of  her  sitting-room.  He  thought  she 
would.  So  I  sent  word  to  all  the  girls,  and  they  all 
came  together.  I  had  never  spent  such  a  night  up 
to  that  time.  I  had  never  met  such  a  large  number 
of  young  converts.  The  teacher  gave  an  earnest 
talk,  and  then  prayed,  and  then  I  prayed.  As  I 
was  about  to  rise.  I  heard  one  of  the  girls  begin  to 
pray.  She  prayed  for  her  teacher,  and  she  prayed 
for  the  superintendent.  Up  to  that  time  I  never 
knew  that  anyone  prayed  for  me  in  that  way. 
When  she  had  finished,  another  girl  prayed.  Before 
we  arose,  every  girl  had  prayed.  What  a  change 
had  come  over  them  in  a  short  space  of  time.  We 
tried  to  sing,  but  did  not  get  on  very  well.  We 
bade  one  another  good-bye,  but  I  felt  that  I  must 
see  the  teacher  again  before  he  left  Chicago,  and  so 
I  met  him  at  the  station,  and  while  we  were  talking, 
one  of  the  girls  came  along,  and  then  another,  until 


TYPICAL  ANECDOTES.  181 

the  whole  class  had  assembled.  They  were  all  there 
on  the  platform.  It  was  a  beautiful  summer  night. 
The  sun  was  just  setting  down  behind  the  western 
prairies.  It  was  a  sight  I  shall  never  forget.  A 
few  gathered  around  us — the  fireman,  engineer, 
brakeman  and  conductor  on  the  train,  and  some  of 
the  passengers  lifted  their  windows  as  the  class 
sang  together — 

"Here  we  meet  to  part  again, 
But  when  we  meet  on  Canaan's  shore, 
There'll  be  no  parting  there." 

As  the  train  moved  out  of  the  station,  the  pale- 
faced  teacher  stood  on  the  platform,  and  with  his 
finger  pointing  heavenward,  said,  "I  will  meet  you 
there."     Then  the  train  disappeared  from  view. 


182 


CHAPTER  XV. 


MR.   MOODY'S  BIBLE 

Mr.  Moody's  Bible  was  a  spectacle  indeed,  marked, 
luiderscored,  much  of  it  defaced  with  hieroglyphics, 
ragged  with  incessant  use,  but  only  one  of  many. 
He  was  alwsvys  wearing  out  bibles  or  filling  their 
margins  and  passing  them  on.  It  was  a  treasure, 
indeed,  for  many  to  get  hold  of  these  and  one  was 
welcome  if  they  would  give  as  much  as  they  would 
take. 

Great  interleaved  Bibles  are  now  in  cir- 
culation, to  which  he  had  contributed  inany  of  his 
gleanings  from  the  stores  of  observation  and 
research,  but  he  expected  them  to  come  back  with 
additions  from  those  who  had  had  the  loan.  And 
he  was  quick  to  lay  hold  of  any  fresh  point  or  strik- 
ing illustration  to  incorporate  in  the  address  which 
he  was  always  engaged  in  preparing,  re-modeling 
or  adding  to.  His  process  of  sermon  manufacture 
was  ver}^  original.  There  was  something  automatic 
about  it.  The  basis  for  each  sermon  was  a  big 
envelope,  labeled  Repentance,  Faith,  Peter,  Zac- 
cheus,  the  Elder  Son;  into  this  envelope  he  put 
clippings  from  papers,  extracts  from  books,  illustra- 
tions and  incidents,  scraps  of  all  kinds,  which  were 
more  or  le'^s  connected  with  the  subject.  When 
this  process  had  continued  for  some  time,  he  went 

]s;5 


184  MR.  MOODY'S    BIBLE. 

through  the  mass  of  accumulation,  rejecting  some, 
laying  hold  of  some,  fitting  it  into  a  connecting 
whole.  Of  this  he  took  a  few  jottings  in  a  large 
hand  to  the  pulpit  or  platform.  The  process  of  look- 
ing through  the  envelope  was  constantly  repeated 
so  the  points  that  had  been  overlooked  were  brought 
to  his  mind,  fresh  illustrations  introduced  and  the 
entire  subject  was  entered  anew  in  all  its  lights. 
This  secured  freshness  of  delivery,  and  preserved 
him  from  the  monotony  of  perpetual  repetition. 


DEATH  OF  MR.  MOODY'S  MOTHER. 

Betsey  Holton  Moody,  the  mother  of  the  great 
evangelist,  died  at  her  home  in  Northfield,  January 
26,  1896,  aged  ninety-one  years.  She  left  to  mourn 
her  loss  four  sons  and  three  daughters. 

Mr.  Moody  made  an  address  at  her  funeral  and  it 
was  the  more  remarkable,  because  he  told  not  only 
of  her  love  and  patience,  but  also  of  her  stern  dis- 
cipline. "She  was  so  loving  a  mother,"  he  said, 
"that  when  we  were  away  we  were  always  glad  to 
get  back.  But  I  never  shall  forget  her  old-fashioned 
whippings.  I  believe  in  them  to-day."  He  also 
spoke  of  her  way  of  making  all  her  boys  go  to 
church.  He  was  strongly  of  the  impression  that  the 
teachings  which  he  imbibed  in  those  early  days,  in  a 
great  measure,  influenced  his  subsequent  life. 

Mr.  Moody's  mother  was  buried  in  a  large  plat  of 
ground  contiguous  to  the  cemetery.  It  was  always 
kept  beautifully  filled  in  with  flowers  placed  there 
by  a  young  man  at  the  special  instigation  of  Mr. 
Moody.     Mr.  Moody,  in  the  summer  after  her  death, 


MR.  MOODY'S   BIBLE.  185 

when  standing  by  her  grave  with  her  friends,  said : 
"She  made  home  so  pleasant.  I  thought  so  much 
of  my  mother  and  cannot  say  half  enough.  The 
dear  face,  there  was  no  sweeter  face  on  earth.  Fifty 
years  I  have  been  coming  back  and  was  always  glad 
to  get  back.  When  I  got  within  fifty  miles  of  home 
I  always  grew  restless  and  walked  up  and  down  the 
car.  It  seemed  as  if  the  train  would  never  get  to 
Northfield.  For  sixty-eight  years  she  lived  on  that 
hill,  and  when  I  came  back  after  dark  I  always 
looked  to  see  the  light  of  my  mother's  window.  It 
was  because  she  made  our  home  so  happy  that  she 
started  me  thinking  how  to  make  homes  happy  for 
others,  and  when  God  took  mother  he  gave  me 
these  little  children.  Here  is  one  century  that  is 
passed.  And  here  is  the  century  that's  coming," 
and  with  this  he  beckoned  for  the  little  babes  and 
other  children  who  were  on  hand  in  their  mother's 
arms,  and  they  were  brought  into  the  circle  and 
dedicated  to  God  in  united  prayers. 


MOODY  MEETS  MISS  WILLARD. 
Miss  Frances  E.  Willard,  the  celebrated  temper- 
ance advocate,  was  identified  with  Mr.  Moody  in 
several  of  his  meetings.  Miss  Willard  said  that  she 
would  never  forget  a  stormy  Sabbath  day  early  in 
1877  when  through  a  blinding  snow  9,000  women 
gathered  at  the  Tabernacle  in  Chicago  to  hear  a  ser- 
mon especially  for  them,  from  what  she  termed  the 
most  successful  evangelistic  of  the  Christian  era. 
It  was  then  she  and  Mr.  Moody  met  for  the  first 
time  and  he  asked  her  to  lead  the  meeting  in  prayer. 
She  said  she  never  beheld  a  more  impressive  scene. 


186  MOODY'S   BIBLE. 

At  the  close  of  the  meeting  in  January  of  that  year 
Mr.  Moody  sent  for  Miss  Willard  to  come  to  his 
hotel,  and  he  asked  her  to  accompany  him  to  Boston 
and  help  in  the  women's  meeting  there.  She  said 
she  would  be  glad  to  do  so,  but  that  she  wanted  to 
consult  her  mother  about  it.  He  asked  her  what 
her  means  of  support  were  and  she  told  him  that  her 
expenses  were  paid  by  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  while  she 
worked  for  them,  but  that  if  she  should  devote  her 
time  to  revival  meetings  even  that  source  of  income 
would  cease.  Mr.  Moody  suggested  that  they  pray 
for  light;  this  they  did  and  the  interview  ended. 
Her  mother  liked  the  plan  and  early  in  February 
she  took  up  her  work  in  Boston  and  devoted  consid- 
erable time  each  morning  to  the  study  of  the  Bible. 

One  day  as  Miss  Willard  was  about  to  open  her 
new  meeting  in  the  Burkley  Street  Church,  Mr. 
Moody  came  rushing  up  the  steps  and  said  that  he 
had  heard  that  she  had  been  talking  temperance  all 
around  the  suburbs.  He  asked  her  why  she  did  this 
and  stated  that  he  wanted  her  attention  to  the  Bos- 
ton meeting.  She  replied  that  she  had  no  money 
and  that  it  was  necessary  that  she  should  go  out 
and  earn  some.  Moody  seemed  perplexed  and 
wanted  to  know  whether  he  had  given  her  nothing. 
She  replied  that  he  had  not.  He  then  wanted  to  know 
if  certain  people  had  not  paid  her  way  from  Chicago 
and  sent  her  money  for  traveling  expenses.  She 
said  that  they  had  not.  Moody  said  that  he  guessed 
that  they  had  forgotten  it  and  rushed  away.  That 
night  when  she  was  going  to  a  meeting  he  thrust  a 
generous  check  in  her  hand. 

Miss  Willard  continued  throughout  the  Boston 
meeting,  and  then  devoted  herself  to  other  work. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


THE  KANSAS  CITY  MEETING. 

On  November  15,  1899,  Mr.  Moody  told  the  min- 
isters who  were  associated  with  him  in  the  revival 
which  he  was  holding  in  the  great  Convention  Hall 
at  Kansas  City,  that  he  was  nearly  exhausted,  and 
that  he  must  have  rest,  and  that  he  would  not  lead 
the  after-meetings  in  the  church  as  had  been  his 
custom  previously.  Mr.  Moody  had  been  holding 
revival  services  in  Kansas  City  for  some  weeks,  and 
they  had  been  remarkably  successful.  The  great 
effort,  however,  in  speaking  in  an  immense  hall, 
was  too  much  for  his  years  and  strength.  The  next 
day  a  physician  was  called  after  he  left  the  hall,  and 
went  to  his  hotel,  and  the  next  evening  he  an- 
nounced himself  very  much  better;  he  said  he  did 
not  know  just  what  was  the  matter  with  him,  but 
that  he  was  under  the  impression  that  he  had  a  lit- 
tle cold  and  a  little  touch  of  malaria,  but  that  he  was 
being  brought  around  all  right.  He  concluded  that 
in  order  to  cure  himself  that  he  would  only  hold  two 
meetings  each  day  in  Convention  Hall.  The  morn- 
ing and  afternoon  prayer-meeting  and  the  after 
meetings,  all  of  which  were  held  in  the  Second 
Presbyterian  church,  were  led  by  someone  else; 
Mr.  Moody  was  not  present.  In  four  days  that 
week  some  three  hundred   people    had    expressed 

187 


188  THE  KANSAS  CITY   MEETING. 

their  intention  of  becoming  Christians.  The  names 
and  addresses  of  all  the  converts  were  taken,  with 
their  church  preferences,  if  any,  and  these  facts 
were  to  determine  who  should  look  after  them  until 
they  were  safely  landed  in  the  right  path  and  to  be 
able  to  see  their  own  way  to  salvation. 

On  the  17th  of  November,  for  the  first  time  in 
forty  years  as  a  preacher-evangelist,  Mr.  Moody  was 
obliged  to  give  up  and  leave  a  meeting.  Mr.  Moody 
found  himself  worse  on  Friday  morning,  and  he  kept 
getting  worse, until,  by  noon,  his  physician.  Dr.  E.W. 
Schauffler,  found  his  patient  becoming  so  weak  that 
he  informed  him  that  it  would  not  be  advisable  for 
him  to  preach  at  the  afternoon  meeting.  Mr.  Moody 
held  out  until  the  last  moment,  hoping  his  strength, 
would  revive,  but  finally  was  reluctantly  compelled 
to  coincide  with  his  physician  in  his  views. 

As  the  morning  wore  on,  Mr.  Moody's  friends  saw 
that  he  kept  growing  weaker,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  Mr.  Moody  himself  decided  that  he  must  do 
what  he  had  never  done  before  in  his  life,  abandon 
a  series  of  meetings  before  its  close,  and  go  as  soon 
as  possible  to  his  home  in  Northfield,  Mass.  It 
almost  broke  his  heart  to  carry  out  such  a  decision, 
but  his  rapidly  waning  strength  warned  him  that  he 
should  be  at  home  where  he  could  have  the  cheer- 
ing and  reviving  influences  which  would  come  to 
him  from  the  ministrations  of  his  wife  and  family. 

Accordingly,  arrangements  were  made  for  the 
journey  by  the  road  which  would  get  him  to  his 
home  in  as  short  a  time  and  in  as  comfortable  a 
manner  as  possible.  No  special  or  private  car  in 
the  city  being  available  at  that  time,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Neil,  the  evangelists,  tendered  the  use  of  their  gos- 


V-!      *->  li 


THE   KANSAS  CITY  MEETING.  191 

pel  car,  "The  Messenger  of  Peace."  This  was 
accepted,  and  it  was  attached  to  the  Wabash  train. 
Mr.  Moody  left  Kansas  City  at  9.15  o'clock  on  the 
night  of  November  17th  for  the  long  journey  to  his 
home,  going  by  way  of  St.  Louis  and  Buffalo.  Mrs. 
Neil  accompanied  the  car  to  assist  in  nursing  the 
sick  man,  who  was  also  accompanied  by  Dr.  Robert 
Schauffler,  who,  with  his  father,  had  been  attending 
Mr.  Moody,  and  by  Mr.  Charles  M.  Vining,  teller  of 
the  Union  National  Bank,  who  went  at  Mr.  Moody's 
special  request,  Mr.  Vining  having  been  a  classmate 
and  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Moody's  son  at  college. 
Mr.  Moody's  friends  say  that  he  had  shown  much 
physical  weakness  since  his  arrival  at  Kansas  City, 
and  there  had  been  a  rapid  running  down  in  his 
condition,  and  to  this  they  attributed  the  fact  that 
he  had  seemed  to  fail  to  get  the  hold  upon  his  audi- 
ences which  was  usual  with  him. 

His  talks  had  appeared  to  lack  the  power  and  con- 
vincing energy  to  which  those  who  had  heard  him 
frequently  were  accustomed,  still  there  had  been  a 
great  awakening  among  religious  people,  and  quick- 
ening of  the  spirit,  which  had  resulted  in  great  good 
to  the  church.  The  foundation  had  been  laid  upon 
which  great  revivals  in  the  individual  churches 
could  be  raised,  while  the  way  had  been  opened  for 
successful  evangelical  meetings,  as  they  had  been 
previously  advertised  in  nearly  all  the  churches  in 
the  city.  The  direct  results  in  actual  converts  at 
the  meetings,  however,  had  not  been  nearly  so  large 
as  was  usual  in  his  meetings. 

Mr.  Moody  himself,  nevertheless,  did  not  appear 
to  have  any  fears  but  that  he  would  be  able  to  go 
on  with  his  evangelistic  meetings  after  a  few  days. 
11 


192  THE   KANSAS  CITY  MEETING. 

He  regretted  very  much  to  leave  the  Kansas  City 
meetings,  and  he  cancelled  an  engagement  which 
he  had  for  beginning  a  series  of  meetings  at  Roches- 
ter, N.  Y.,  on  the  following  Wednesday. 

He  said  that  it  was  not  the  speaking  in  the  hall 
there  that  had  brought  on  his  illness.  The  speak- 
ing, he  said,  did  not  specially  tire  him,  as  he  felt  no 
pain  or  difficulty  while  preaching.  It  was  in  walk- 
ing back  and  forth  from  Convention  Hall  to  the 
Coates  House,  where  he  stopped,  that  he  felt  pain 
and  difficulty  in  breathing. 

Mr.  Moody  thought  of  the  meetings  up  to  the  time 
he  left,  sending  a  special  word  over  to  the  evening 
meetings,  thanking  the  choir  for  their  services,  and 
asking  all  to  continue  under  the  arrangement 
whereby  the  meetings  were  to  continue  on  to  the 
next  Sunday  evening  as  planned.  He  also  thanked 
the  ministers  for  the  cordial  support  they  had  given 
him,  and  the  reporters  for  their  work,  saying  he  had 
never  held  meetings  in  a  city  where  the  newspapers 
had  reported  his  meetings  with  more  appreciation 
and  cordiality. 

Mr.  Moody's  last  sermon  was  on  the  night  of  No- 
vember 1 6th,  was  on  the  parable  of  a  certain  man 
who  made  a  great  feast  and  invited  his  friends,  but 
when  these  friends  all  sent  their  regrets,  he  went 
out  into  the  streets  and  invited  everybody,  and  into 
the  hedge  rows  and  compelled  people  to  come,  de- 
claring meanwhile  that  they  who  had  been  invited 
and  refused  to  come  should  not  taste  of  his  feast. 

Mr.  Moody  took  up  the  excuses  of  those  who 
refused  to  go  to  the  feast,  and  showed  how  frivolous 
they  were.  The  man  who  had  just  bought  a  piece 
of  land  surely  knew  what  it  was  before  he  bought 


THE   KANSAS   CITY  MEETING.  193 

it.  So  with  the  oxen  and  the  man  who  married — 
his  bride  would  undoubtedly  have  been  glad  to  go 
to  the  king's  banquet. 

"These  excuses  do  look  pretty  foolish  now  when  I 
hold  them  up  to  you,"  said  Mr.  Moody,  "but  I  have 
an  invitation  to-night  to  all  of  you  to  attend  a  royal 
feast — the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb — and  your 
excuses  for  not  coming  are  even  more  frivolous  and 
false. 

"Men  at  the  present  time  are  about  all  making 
excuses.  The  habit  is  as  old  as  Adam.  Adam  made 
a  mean,  contemptible  excuse;  said  it  was  his  wife; 
he  even  threw  the  blame  back  upon  God,  and  said, 
'This  woman  that  Thou  gavestme. '  But  men  all 
have  excuses.  They  have  not  the  moral  courage  to 
say  they  don't  want  to  go  to  the  feast;  they  lay 
awake  nights  to  make  up  excuses,  and  if  I  were  to 
tear  up  every  excuse  that  you  have  here  to-night 
and  then  jump  down  off  this  platform  and  ask  the 
first  man  down  there,  he  would  have  a  new  excuse 
ready.  I  tell  you  excuses  are  the  devil's  cradles  to 
rock  souls  off  to  sleep  in. ' ' 

Mr.  Moody  then  took  up  the  excuses  men  most 
frequently  give  for  not  becoming  Christians.  "  'The 
Bible  is  not  true,'  they  say.  They  criticise  the  Bible 
who  have  never  read  it,  never  study  it,  don't  know 
anything  about  it.  Some  say,  'I  don't  know  as  I 
have  been  foreordained  to  be  saved' ;  others  stay 
out  because  'there  are  so  many  hypocrites  in  the 
church.'  " 

Said  Mr.  Moody:  "I'll  find  a  hundred  hypocrites 
in  the  world  to  where  you  will  find  one  in  the 
Church.  Of  course,  there  are  hypocrites  in  the 
church — the  tares  and  the  wheat  grow  up  together ; 


194  THE   KANSAS   CITY  MEETING. 

but  if  you  stay  out  of  church  because  there  are 
hypocrites  in  it,  why  don't  you  quit  your  business 
because  there  are  hypocrites  in  that?  Are  you  a 
grocer?  There  are  folks  in  this  country  who  grind 
marble  up  in  the  sugar.  Are  you  a  lawyer?  Are 
there  any  hypocrites  among  the  lawyers?  Are  you 
a  doctor?  Are  there  any  quacks  among  the  doctors? 
Are  you  a  Republican?  Are  there  any  hypocrites 
there?  Or  a  Democrat?  'But,'  you  say,  'I  don't 
belong  to  either;  I  am  a  Prohibitionist.'  Are  there 
any  hypocrites  among  the  prohibition  parties? 

"Oh,  I  am  about  tired  and  sick  of  people  trying  to 
live  on  the  faults  of  others;  you  can't  get  very  fat 
on  that ;  look  out  for  the  men  who  are  always  howl- 
ing about  hypocrites;  they  are  hypocrites  them- 
selves." 

Other  excuses  which  were  given  were  treated  very 
much  in  the  same  manner  by  the  speaker,  who 
finally  said  that  there  were  two  excuses  which  were 
more  universal  than  any,  but  which  are  seldom 
avowed.  "One  is  the  lack  of  moral  courage,"  said 
he;  "they  are  a  pack  of  cowards  waiting  to  enter 
the  kingdom  of  God  if  they  would  act  up  to  their 
convictions.  The  other  excuse  is  sin.  People  have 
some  sin  possibly  they  do  not  want  people  to  know 
about,  but  they  don't  want  to  give  that  sin  up  as 
they  would  have  to  do  if  they  became  Christians." 

Mr.  Moody  closed  by  stating  that  if  an  excuse  was 
written  out  by  one  of  the  reporters  asking  God,  "I 
pray  Thee  have  more  excuses  from  the  marriage 
feast,"  that  no  one  in  the  house  would  sign  it,  but 
those  who  go  out  of  the  house  without  accepting  the 
invitation  virtually  do  the  same  thing.  If  the  note 
was  written  to  go  to  God  direct,  "I  will  be  there," 


THE   KANSAS   CITY  MEETING.  195 

all  would  want  to  sign  it.  -"Now,"  said  the  preacher, 
"how  many  will  accept  this  invitation?  How  many- 
will  say,  'I  will?'  " 

Half  a  dozen,  scattered  through  the  audience,  re- 
sponded, and  as  Mr.  Moody  repeated  the  request, 
there  was  as  many  more  that  had  been  stirred  to 
the  heart  by  his  resistless  logic,  and  as  he  said,  "I 
will  wait  a  few  moments  longer  to  see  if  any  one 
else,  any  man,  woman  or  child,  will  say  the  word. 
I  could  stand  here  all  night  and  listen  to  those  'I 
wills."  " 

The  responses  came  from  all  parts  of  the  great 
hall  until  about  half  a  hundred  had  responded  to 
the  invitation  held  out  by  Mr.  Moody. 

Mr.  Moody  arrived  in  St.  Louis  the  next  day,  and 
after  partaking  of  a  hearty  breakfast  at  the  Union 
Station,  continued  his  journey  home.  In  the  morn- 
ing he  sent  the  following  telegram  to  the  Conven- 
tion Hall  meeting  at  Kansas  City:  "I  thank  the 
good  people  of  Kansas  City  for  all  their  kindness  to 
me.  Had  best  night  in  a  week.  Heart  stronger 
and  temperature  nearly  normal." 

Mr.  Moody  reached  Northfield,  Sunday,  the  19th. 

His  wife  and  son,  William  R.  Moody,  had  gone  to 
Buffalo  to  meet  him,  but  as  he  did  not  stop  in  Buf- 
falo, they  missed  each  other.  He  went  to  Greenfield 
over  the  Fitchburg  road,  where  he  was  met  by  his 
youngest  son,  Paul,  with  a  pair  of  horses,  and  was 
at  once  driven  over  the  country  roads  to  East  North- 
field,  twelve  miles  away.  The  ride  apparently  did 
Mr.  Moody  much  good,  and  he  expressed  himself  as 
greatly  pleased  at  having  reached  his  home. 

He  sent  the  following  telegram,  which  was  read 
at  the  opening  of  the  last  meeting  of  the  revival  in 


196  THE  KANSAS  CITY  MEETING. 

Kansas  City  that  night  to  ten  thousand  people: 
"East  Northfield,  Mass.,  November  19th.  Have 
reached  here  safely;  have  traveled  back  and  forth 
for  forty  years,  and  never  felt  better.  '  Regret 
heartily  that  I  had  to  leave  Kansas  City.  Had  I 
been  there  to-night,  I  would  have  preached  on  'They 
are  not  far  from  the  Kingdom. '  My  prayer  is,  that 
many  be  led  into  the  kingdom  under  Mr.  Torrey's 
preaching.  I  want  to  thank  the  good  people  of 
Kansas  City  for  their  kindness  and  prayers.  Dr. 
Robert  Schaufifler  and  Mr,  Vining  have  been  of 
great  help,  and  I  appreciate  your  kindness  in  send- 
ing them. "     (Signed.)     Dwight  L.  Moody. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


DEATH  OF  MOODY. 

With  the  words  "God  is  calling  me,"  Dwight  L. 
Moody,  the  evangelist,  whose  fame  was  world  wide, 
fell  asleep  in  death,  at  his  home  in  East  Northfield, 
Mass. ,  at  noon,  December  2  2,  1899.  The  passing  of 
his  spirit  from  a  body  which  had  been  tortured  with 
pain  for  some  weeks,  to  the  rest  beyond,  was  as 
gentle  as  could  be  wished  for.  His  family  were 
gathered  at  his  bedside,  and  the  dying  man's  last 
moments  were  spent  in  comforting  them  and  in 
contemplation  of  that  reward  for  which  he  had  so 
long  and  earnestly  labored.  He  knew  that  death 
was  near,  but  its  sting  to  him  was  lost  in  the  un- 
folding to  his  mental  vision  of  a  beautiful  scene, 
judging  from  his  last  words. 

The  gathering  of  the  family  around  the  bedside 
of  the  great  evangelist  was  a  scene  that  will  be  re- 
ferred to  many  times  in  years  to  come,  as  Mr. 
Moody's  work  is  carried  forward.  Besides  the  fam- 
ily there  were  present  also  Drs.  Schofield  and  Woods, 
and  the  nurse. 

During  the  night,  Mr.  Moody  had  a  number  of 

sinking  spells.     He   was,  however,   kindness  itself 

to  those  about  him.     At  two  o'clock  in  the  morning 

Dr.  N.  P.  Wood,  the   family  physician,    who    spent 

the  night  in  the  house,  was  called  at  the  request  of 

197 


198  DEATH  OF  MOODY. 

Mr.  Moody.  He  was  perspiring,  and  he  requested 
his  son-in-law,  A.  P.  Fitt,  who  spent  the  night  with 
him,  to  call  the  physician  that  he  might  note  the 
symptoms.  Dr.  Wood  administered  a  hypodermic 
injection  of  strychnia.  This  caused  the  heart  to 
perform  its  duties  more  regularly,  and  Mr.  Moody 
himself  requested  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Fitt,  and  Dr. 
Wood  to  retire.  Mr.  Moody's  eldest  son,  Will  R. 
Moody,  who  had  been  sleeping  the  first  of  the  night, 
spent  the  last  half  with  his  father. 

At  7. 30  in  the  morning  Dr.  Wood  was  called,  and 
when  he  reached  Mr.  Moody's  room  found  his 
patient  in  a  semi-conscious  condition.  When  Mr. 
Moody  recovered  consciousness,  he  said,  with  all  his 
old  vivacity: 

"What's  the  matter;  what's  going  on  here?" 

Some  member  of  the  family  replied:  "Father, 
you  haven't  been  quite  so  well,  and  so  we  came  in  to 
see  you. ' ' 

'  A  little  later  he  said  to  his  boys:  "I  have  always 
been  an  ambitious  man,  not  ambitious  to  lay  up 
wealth,  but  to  leave  you  work  to  do. ' '  In  substance 
Mr.  Moody  urged  his  two  boys  and  his  son-in-law, 
Mr.  Fitt,  to  see  that  the  schools  in  East  Northfield, 
at  Mt.  Hermon  and  the  Chicago  Bible  institute  should 
receive  their  best  care.  This  they  assured  Mr. 
Moody  they  would  do. 

During  the  forenoon,  Mrs.  A.  P.  Fitt,  his  daughter, 
said  to  him:  "Father,  we  can't  spare  you."  Mr. 
Moody's  reply  was:  "I'm  not  going  to  throw  my 
life  away.  If  God  has  more  work  for  me  to  do,  I'll 
not  die." 

As  the  noonday  hour  drew  near  the  watchers  at 
the  bedside  noted  the  approach  of  death.     Several 


DEATH  OF  MOODY.  199 

times  his  lips  moved  as  if  in  prayer,  but  the  articula- 
tion was  so  faint  that  the  words  could  not  be  heard. 
Just  as  death  came  Mr.  Moody  awoke  as  if  from 
slumber,  and  said  with  much  joyousness: 

"I  see  earth  receding ;  heaven  is  opening.  God  is 
calling  me." 

And  a  moment  later  he  had  entered  upon  what 
one  of  his  sons  described  as  "a  triumphal  march 
into  heaven." 

Dr.  Wood  says  that  Mr.  Moody  did  not  have  the 
slightest  fear  of  death.  He  was  thoroughly  con- 
scious until  within  less  than  a  minute  of  his  death. 
Dr.  Wood  says  the  cause  of  his  death  was  heart  fail- 
ure. He  adds  that  the  walls  surrounding  the  heart 
grew  weaker  and  weaker.  While  it  is  true  that  Mr. 
Moody  had  symptoms  of  Bright's  disease  a  few  days 
ago,  his  death  was  due,  the  physician  says,  to  dila- 
tion of  the  heart.  There  had  been  dilation  in  a 
gradual  way  for  the  past  nine  years.  The  family 
had  been  told  some  time  ago  that  Mr.  Moody  might 
get  out  and  about,  but  still  he  was  liable  to  drop 
away  at  any  time. 

There  were  present  in  Mr.  Moody's  chamber  when 
he  died  his  wife,  his  daughter,  Mrs.  A.  P.  Fitt,  and 
her  husband,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Will  R.  Moody,  Paul 
Moody,  the  youngest  son ;  Dr.  N.  P.  Wood  and  Miss 
Powers,  the  nurse.  Mrs.  Moody  had  carried  herself 
during  the  sickness  of  her  husband  with  the  greatest 
bravery  and  patience,  but  when  death  came  she  was 
prostrated.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Moody's  death  became 
known  in  the  village  the  utmost  sorrow  was  shown. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Moody  was  not  unexpected, 
although  his  temporary  recovery  from  illness  was 
hoped  for,  not  only  by  his  friends  near  at  hand,  but 
12 


200  DEATH  OF  MOODY. 

by  those  who  had  listened  to  his  words  and  teachings 
on  both  continents.  In  the  family  there  was  fear 
that  death  was  not  a  long  way  off.  The  cause  of 
death  was  a  general  breaking  down  of  his  health, 
due  to  overwork.  His  constitution  was  that  of  an 
exceedingly  strong  man,  but  his  untiring  labors 
had  gradually  undermined  his  vitality  until  that 
most  delicate  of  organs,  the  heart,  showed  signs  of 
weakness. 

Mr.  Moody's  exertions  in  the  West  during  the 
month  of  November  brought  on  the  crisis,  and  the 
collapse  came  during  the  series  of  meetings  at  Kan- 
sas City.  An  early  diagnosis  by  eminent  physicians 
made  it  evident  that  Mr.  Moody's  condition  was 
serious  and  cancelling  his  engagements  he  returned 
to  his  home  in  East  Northfield,  so  near  the  greatest 
achievements  of  his  later  life. 

On  reaching  his  home  the  family  physician,  Dr. 
N.  P.  Wood,  took  charge  of  Mr.  Moody,  and  for 
some  days  bulletins  as  to  the  patient's  condition 
were  issued,  all  having  an  encouraging  tone,  seem- 
ingly, but  unerringly  pointing  to  the  fact  that  the 
evangelist's  work  on  earth  was  about  finished. 
During  the  week  previous  to  the  one  in  which  his 
death  occurred,  a  change  for  the  worst  prepared 
immediate  friends  for  what  was  to  come. 

In  the  last  week,  however,  the  patient  improved 
steadily,  until  the  day  before  his  death,  when  he 
appeared  very  nervous.  This  symptom  was  accom- 
panied by  weakness,  which  much  depressed  the 
family,  who  were  anxiously  watching  the  sufferer. 

Mr.  Moody's  failing  health,  or,  rather,  his  appre- 
ciation that  he  must  guard  the  vitalities  of  his  life, 
unless  he  wished  to  have  his  work  cut  short  even 


DEATH  OF  MOODY.  201 

before  it  was,  came  when  he  was  in  England  some 
years  ago,  when  physicians  cautioned  him.  And  it 
appeared  that  he  took  some  heed,  but  the  zeal  that 
was  in  him  must  find  its  outlet,  and  his  ceaseless 
work  had  done  the  rest. 

At  Kansas  City,  after  beginning  a  short  series  of 
meetings  there,  he  found  that  the  hand  of  prostra- 
tion, if  nothing  more,  was  laid  upon  him,  and  he 
returned  to  his  home  to  rest  and  recover.  The  physi- 
cians and  specialists  had  ofEered  encouragement, 
but  coupled  it  with  the  reservation  that,  with  his 
vitality  impaired  by  such  excessive  calls  upon  it, 
there  was  a  chance  that  he  might  recover  and  be 
ready  for  more  work.  They  felt,  in  the  light  of  the 
great  efforts  of  the  past,  it  could  not  be  told  with 
surety  that  this  favorable  turn  would  come.  The 
end  came  and  the  great  man  passed  from  earth. 

Mr.  Moody  made,  in  his  will,  provision  for  his 
wife,  but  the  sons  receive  a  legacy  of  their  father's 
work  to  continue,  and  they  modestly  say  they  look 
upon  it  with  some  tremulousness,  realizing  that  the 
mighty  will  and  intense  personality  of  their  father  is 
absent.  However,  the  school  work  at  which  Mr, 
W.  R.  Moody  is  practically  the  head  as  representing 
his  father's  plans  and  ideas  will  be  continued.  The 
outside  work  they  make  no  pretense  of  repeating. 
From  many  sources  Mr.  Moody  received  large  sums 
of  money,  and,  after  the  devotion  of  it  to  the  school 
work,  where  so  directed,  was  careful  and  prudent 
with  the  rest.  On  his  own  account,  he  acquired 
large  sums,  too,  and,  after  proper  provision  for  his 
home  and  those  nearest  him,  he  gave  the  rest  to  his 
work.  With  many  legitimate  opportunities  to  be- 
come a  wealthy  man,  he  never  used  them,  and  his 


202  DEATH  OF  MOODY. 

estate  is  unknown,  not  large,  but  presumably  large- 
enough  for  the  purposes  he  devised. 

A  quiet  night  followed  the  day  that  brought 
bereavement  to  the  Moody  family  and  the  town  of 
which  Mr.  Moody  and  the  institutions  founded  by 
him  were  such  prominent  figures.  The  inmates 
of  the  Moody  home,  after  a  restful  night,  were  astir 
early.  Mrs.  Moody  seemed  to  be  considerably 
refreshed,  and  the  other  members  of  the  family  had 
gained  new  strength  for  their  experience  during  the 
intervals  of  sleep  which  came  to  them. 

Messages  of  condolence,  which  began  to  come  in 
the  first  day,  were  received  in  increased  numbers 
the  next  day.  Nearly  one  hundred  telegrams  from 
all  parts  of  the  United  States  were  received  during 
the  day.  A  number  of  cablegrams  were  also 
received. 

The  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer,  of  London,  who  has  been  a 
prominent  speaker  at  Northfield,  and  who,  with  Mr. 
Moody,  held  meetings  in  several  of  the  large  cities 
of  the  country  last  fall,  cabled  from  England  his 
condolence. 

Some  of  the  expressions  of  sympathy  follow : 

Deepest  sympathy  and  Christian  love.  Our 
hearts  bleed  for  you.  H.  M.  Moore, 

C.  A.  Hopkins, 

Boston. 
Sad  news  just  received.     Will  be  there  to-morrow. 

Ira  D.  Sankey,  Brooklyn. 
Our  entire  household  bereaved  with  you. 

H.  C.  Mabie,  Newton. 
Deepest    and    most  affectionate    sympathy.       A 
wonderful  life  and  a  triumphant  entrance  to  the 
Father's  house. 

William  E.  Dodge,  New  York. 


DEATH  OF  MOODY.  203 

The  whole  world  seems  to  be  incomplete  without 
our  dear  Moody.     God  bless  and  keep  you  all. 

J.  Wilbur  Chapman. 

Tenderest  sympathy  in  this  overwhelming-  sorrow. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Wanamaker, 

Philadelphia, 

Please  accept  and  extend  to  all  the  family  my 
deepest  sympathy  at  the  time  of  this  great  bereave- 
ment. William  H.  Haile, 

Springfield,  Mass. 

My  deepest  sympathy.  It  has  been  given  to  few 
men  to  live  a  life  of  such  characteristic  service  as 
did  your  noble  father.  Anson  P.  Stokes. 

Lord  and  Lady  Overton  send  loving  sympathy  in 
our  common  sorrow.  All  Scotland  mourns.  Ten- 
derest sympathy  with  you  all. 

George  B.  Studd,  California. 

Profound  sorrow.  Deepest  sympathy.  I  loved 
Mr.  Moody.  George  F.  Pentacost,  ' 

Yonkers,  N.  Y. 

Your  loss  is  great,  but  it  is  for  time.  Mr.  Moody's 
work  will  live  for  all  eternity.  The  vSalvation  Army 
throughout  the  whole  world  prays  for  you. 

Booth-Tucker. 

Permit  me  to  extend  sympathy  to  your  family. 
Uppermost  in  my  heart  and  mind  is  gratitude  to 
God  for  Mr.  Moody's  life.  J.  Willis  Baer. 

All  Christendom  mourns  with  you.  Our  prayers 
are  that  you  may  be  mightily  comforted. 

T.  De  Witt  Talmadge. 

You  have  the  deepest  sympathy  of  my  race  in 
your  affliction.  Your  husband's  work  is  of  lasting 
value  to  both  races.  Booker  T.  Washington. 

I  profoundly  sorrow  and  sympathize  with  you  and 
rejoice  with  him  who  has  gone.  F.  E.  Clark. 


204.  DEATH  OF  MOODY. 

Please  accept  my  friendly  sympathy  in  your  sad 
bereavement  in  the  death  of  your  good  husband, 

Fr.  Quaille,  Northfield. 

I  beg  you  to  accept  for  yourself  and  family  my 
sincere  sympathy  in  your  great  loss. 

Marshall  Field,  Chicago. 

Mrs.  Sage  unites  with  me  in  deepest  sympathy 
for  you  and  your  family  in  your  sad  bereavement. 

Russell  Sage. 

We  stand  by  in  deepest  sympathy.  The  blank  is 
awful ;  but  our  beloved  is  with  the  King.  God  com- 
fort you.  C.  G.  Morgan,  London,  Eng. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 


THE  LAST  FAREWELL. 

The  funeral  was  held  at  Northfield,  December  26 

During  the  morning  the  members  of  the  Moody 
family  were  with  the  body,  which  has  lain  in  the 
death  chamber  since  Mr.  Moody's  death,  Friday. 
Soon  after  ten  o'clock  the  body  was  placed  in  the 
heavy  broadcloth  casket  and  removed  to  the  parlor 
of  the  Moody  home,  where  a  simple  service  of  prayer 
was  conducted  by  Mr.  Moody's  pastor,  the  Rev. 
C.  L  Schofield,  and  the  Rev.  R.  A.  Torrey,  of  Chi- 
cago. 

At  the  close  of  the  service  the  casket  was  placed 
on  a  massive  bier,  and  thirty-two  Mt.  Hermon  stu- 
dents bore  it  to  the  church,  where  it  was  to  lie  in 
state.  The  funeral  cortege  was  led  by  the  Rev. 
Messrs.  Schofield  and  Torrey,  and  followed  by  the 
members  of  the  various  institutions  with  which  Mr. 
Moody  was  connected,  friends,  and  Christian  work- 
ers from  all  over  the  United  States,  and  some  rep- 
resentatives from  foreign  countries. 

One  of  the  touching  incidents  of  the  morning  was 
the  appearance  on  the  lawn  outside  the  Moody  home 
of  the  son,  Will  R.  Moody,  who  stood  in  the  keen 
December  air,  without  hat  or  overcoat,  as  the  pro- 
cession passed  out  of  the  house,  until  the  last 
mourner  had  left  the  door;  then  the  young  man 

205 


206  THE   LAST  FAREWELL. 

leaned  against  a  tree  and  gave  vent  to  his  long-sup- 
pressed grief. 

At  the  church,  the  body  was  placed  directly  in 
front  of  the  altar,  and  the  casket  immediately 
opened.  Then  began  to  file  in  the  neighbors  and 
friends  from  Northfield  and  surrounding  towns, 
who  had  known  Mr.  Moody  as  a  neighbor  and  per- 
sonal friend,  as  well  as  a  spiritual  helper. 

The  casket  and  the  oak  burial  case  which  was  to 
receive  it  bore  plates  with  the  inscription — 

" D wight  L.  Moody,  1837 — 1899." 

Around  the  casket  were  banked  the  numerous  and 
beautiful  floral  offerings,  among  them  being  a  pil- 
low from  the  trustees  of  Mt.  Hermon  School,  bear- 
ing the  inscription,  in  purple  and  white,  "God  is 
calling  me";  from  the  trustees  of  Northfield  Semi- 
nary, an  open  book ;  from  the  faculty  of  the  Bible 
Institute,  in  Chicago,  a  spray  of  cycas  leaves;  from 
the  girls  of  Northfield  Seminary,  a  spray  of  roses ; 
from  the  Mt.  Hermon  students,  white  roses  and 
laurels;  from  the  teachers  of  the  schools,  bouquets 
of  violets  and  hyacinths. 

While  the  body  lay  in  state  in  the  Congregational 
Church,  between  11  and  2:30  o'clock,  fully  three 
thousand  persons  looked  upon  the  face  of  the  man 
whose  name  is  known  the  world  around  and  who,  it 
was  stated  by  several  here  to-day,  spoke  during  his 
life-time  to  billions  of  people. 

For  a  small  country  town,  this  gathering  seemed 
large ;  but,  in  comparison,  this  number  was  an  infin- 
itesimal delegation  from  the  vast  throngs  which  had 
been  influenced  by  the  voice  and  life  of  a  wonderful 
man. 


THE   LAST   FAREWELL.  209 

The  church  services  over  the  remains  of  Evan- 
gelist Moody  were  simple  but  unusually  impressive 

The  services  began  at  12:30  o'clock,  at  which  time 
the  family  arrived,  Mr.  Will  R.  Moody  with  Mrs.  D 
L.  Moody,  Mr.  Paul  Moody  and  Mrs.  A.  P.  Fitt,  Mr. 
A.  P.  Fitt,  and  Mrs.  W.  R.  Moody  Following  these 
came  other  relatives — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Isaiah  Moody, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  F.  Moody,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  M. 
Walker,  Mrs.  L.  C.  Washburn  and  Mr.  Edward 
Moody.  Following  these  were  the  grandchildren  and 
members  of  the  faculty  and  trustees,  the}^  having 
come  in  and  taken  seats  directly  behind  those  occu- 
pied by  the  family.  The  Rev  Mr.  Schofield  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Torrey,  the  honorary  pallbearers, 
and  several  clergymen,  and  the  Hon.  John  Wana- 
maker  followed. 

The  services  opened  with  a  hymn,  "A  Little 
While  and  He  Shall  Come,"  and  Dr.  Schofield  fol- 
lowed with  prayer.  The  Rev.  A.  T.  Pierson  read 
the  Scripture  lesson,  from  II.  Corinthians  iv.  11 — 
"For  we  which  live  are  always  delivered  unto  death 
for  Jesus'  sake,  that  the  life  also  of  Jesus  might  be 
made  manifest  in  our  mortal  flesh. ' '  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  prayer,  by  the  Rev.  George  C.  Needham, 
after  which  the  congregation  sang  "Emanuel's 
Land,"  the  music  being  directed  by  Prof.  A.  B 
Phillips,  professor  of  music  in  the  Northfield  Insti- 
tute. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Schofield  then  pronounced  the 
eulogy,  saying: 

"  '  Weknow.  We  are  always  confident. '  That  is  the 
Christian  attitude  toward  the  mystery  of  death. 
'We  know,'  so  far  as  the  present  body  is  concerned, 
that  it  is  a  tent  in  which  we  dwell.     It  is  a  conve- 


210  THE   LAST  FAREWELL. 

nience  for  this  present  life.  Death  threatens  it,  so 
far  as  we  can  see,  with  utter  destruction.  Soul  and 
spirit  instinctively  cling  to  this  present  body.  At 
that  point  revelation  steps  in  with  one  of  the  great 
foundational  certainties  and  teaches  us  to  say :  'We 
know  that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle 
were  dissolved,  we  have  a  building  of  God,  an  house 
not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. ' 

"There  is  a  natural  body  and  there  is  a  spiritual 
body.  But  that  is  not  all.  Whither  after  all  shall 
we  go  when  this  earthly  tent  dwelling  is  gone?  To 
what  scenes  does  death  introduce  us?  What,  in  a 
word,  lies  for  the  Christian  just  across  that  little 
trench  which  we  call  a  grave?  Here  is  a  new  and 
most  serious  cause  of  solicitude.  And  here  again 
revelation  brings  to  faith  the  needed  word :  'We  are 
confident,  I  say,  and  willing  rather  to  be  absent  from 
the  body  and  to  be  at  home  with  the  Lord. ' 

"Note,  now,  how  that  assurance  gives  confidence. 
First,  in  that  the  transition  is  instantaneous. 
To  be  absent  from  the  body  is  to  be  at  home  with 
the  Lord.  And  secondly,  every  question  of  the 
soul  which  might  bring  back  an  answer  of  fear  is 
satisfied  with  that  one  little  word  'home. ' 

'  'And  this  is  the  Christian  doctrine  of  death.  'We 
know. '  'We  are  always  confident. '  In  this  tri- 
umphant assurance  Dwight  L.  Moody  lived,  and  at 
high  noon  last  Friday  he  died.  We  are  not  met, 
dear  friends,  to  mourn  a  defeat,  but  to  celebrate  a 
triumph.  He  'walked  with  God  and  he  was  not, 
for  God  took  him. '  There  in  the  West,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  great  audiences  of  12,000  of  his  fellow  men, 
God  spoke  to  him  to  lay  it  all  down  and  come  home. 
He  would  have  planned  it  so. 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  211 

"This  is  not  the  place,  nor  am  I  the  man  to  pre. 
sent  a  study  of  the  life  and  character  of  Dwight  L. 
Moody.  No  one  will  ever  question  that  we  are  lay- 
ing- to-day  in  the  kindly  bosom  of  earth  the  mortal 
body  of  a  great  man.  Whether  we  measure  great- 
ness by  quality  of  character  or  by  qualities  of  intel- 
lect, Dwight  L.  Moody  must  be  accounted  great 

'  'The  basis  of  Mr.  Moody's  character  was  sincerity, 
genuineness.  He  had  an  inveterate  aversion  to  all 
forms  of  sham,  unreality  and  pretense.  Most  of  all 
did  he  detest  religious  pretence  or  cant.  Along 
with  this  fundamental  quality  Mr.  Moody  cherished 
a  great  love  of  righteousness.  His  first  question 
concerning  any  proposed  action  was:  *Is  it  right?' 
But  these  two  qualities,  necessarily  at  the  bottom  of 
all  noble  characters,  were  in  him  suffused  and  trans- 
figured by  divine  grace.  Besides  all  this,  Mr.  Moody 
was  in  a  wonderful  degree  brave,  magnanimous  and 
unselfish. 

"Doubtless  this  unlettered  New  England  country 
boy  became  what  he  was  by  the  grace  of  God.  The 
secrets  of  Dwight  L.  Moody's  power  were:  First,  in 
a  definite  experience  of  Christ's  saving  grace.  He 
had  passed  out  of  death  into  life,  and  he  knew  it. 
Secondly,  Mr.  Moody  believed  in  the  divine  author- 
ity of  th,e  Scriptures.  The  Bible  was,  to  him,  the 
voice  of  God,  and  he  made  it  resound  as  such  in  the 
consciences  of  men.  Thirdly,  he  was  baptized  with 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  he  knew  it.  It  was  to  him  as 
definite  an  experience  as  his  conversion.  Fourthly, 
he  was  a  man  of  prayer;  he  believed  in  a  divine  and 
unfettered  God.  Fifthly,  Mr.  Moody  believed  in 
work,  in  ceaseless  effort,  in  wise  provision,  in  the 
power  of  organization,  of  publicity. 


212  THE  LAST  FAREWELL. 

"I  like  to  think  of  D.  L.  Moody  in  heaven.  I 
like  to  think  of  him  with  his  Lord  and  with  Elijah, 
Daniel,  Paul,  August,  Luther,  Wesley  and  Finney. 

"Farewell  for  a  little  time,  great  heart;  may  a 
double  portion  of  the  Spirit  be  vouchsafed  to  us  who 
remain. ' ' 

The  next  address  was  by  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Weston, 
of  Crozier  Theological  Seminary,  Chester,  Pa.,  who 
said: 

"I  counted  it  among  one  of  the  greatest  pleasures 
of  my  life  that  I  had  the  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
Moody :  that  I  was  placed  under  his  influence  and 
that  I  was  permitted  to  study  God's  words  and  work 
through  him. 

"He  was  the  greatest  religious  character  of  this 
century.  When  we  see  men  who  are  eminent 
among  their  fellows,  we  always  attribute  it  to  some 
special  natural  gift  with  which  they  are  endowed, 
some  special  education  they  have  received,  or  some 
magnetic  personality  with  which  they  are  blessed, 
Mr.  Moody  had  none  of  these,  and  yet  no  man  had 
such  power  of  drawing  the  multitude.  No  man 
could  surpass  him  in  teaching  and  influencing  indi- 
viduals— individuals  of  brain,  of  executive  power. 
I  am  speaking  to  some  of  such  this  afternoon.  Mr. 
Moody  liad  the  power  of  grouping  them  to  himself 
with  hooks  of  steel, and  many  of  them  were  good 
workers  with  him  many  years;  and  they  will  carry 
on  his  work  now  that  he  has  passed  away. 

"Mr.  Moody  had  none  of  the  gifts  and  qualifica- 
tions that  I  have  mentioned.  No  promise,  and 
apparently  no  possibility  in  his  early  life,  no  early 
promise,  if  he  had  any  promise,  of  the  life  he  had 
to  lead.     What  had  he?     There  was  never  anything 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  213 

as  interesting  in  Northfield,  as  Mr.  Moody  to  me.  I 
listened  to  him  with  profound  and  great  interest 
and  profit,  as  the  one  who  could  draw  the  multitude 
as  no  one  else  in  the  world.  He  entered  fully  into 
the  words,  'Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but 
by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God. '  So  he  fed  upon  that  word ;  his  life  was  in- 
stantly a  growth,  because  he  fed  on  the  word  of 
God,  so  that  he  might  have  it  ready  for  every  emer- 
gency 

"All  this  was  not  for  himself,  but  for  others.  He 
did  not  study  the  Bible  for  himself  alone,  but  that 
he  might  add  to  his  stock  of  knowledge.  He  did 
not  study  his  Bible  in  order  to  criticise,  but  to  make 
men  partakers  of  that  light  which  had  enlarged  his 
own  soul,  and  that,  I  appeal  to  you,  was  the  first 
desire  of  his  heart,  that  other  men  might  live. 

"With  this  one  conception  in  his  heart  he  dots  his 
plain  all  over  with  buildings  which  will  stand 
tmtil  the  millennium.  His  soul  was  full  of  joy,  and 
that  definite  joy  finds  its  expression  like  the  Hebrew 
prophet.  I  don't  think  he  sung  himself,  but  he 
wanted  the  gospel  sung,  and  I  used  to  listen  to  song 
after  song  and  I  remember  all  the  time  this  was 
simply  the  expression  of  that  joy  that  welled  up  in 
his  heart,  and  the  joy  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

'You  remember  last  summer  how  hopeful  he 
was,  constantly,  as  he  compared  himself  to  'that  old 
man  of  80  years,  and  I  am  only  62,  and  I  have  so 
much  before  me  to  live  for.  *  Because  D.  L,  Moody 
had  mastered,  or  the  power  of  Christ  had  so  mas- 
tered, every  fibre  of  his  being ;  because  of  that — ^well, 
you'll  pardon  me  in  saying,  I  hardly  dare  say  it — 
put  Jesus  Christ  in  the  same  body,  the  same  metal 


214  THE   LAST  FAREWELL. 

calibre  and  surroundings,  and  he  would  fill  up  his 
life  much  as  Moody  did,  and  that  is  the  reason  to- 
day that  I  would  rather  be  Dwight  L.  Moody  in  his 
coffin  than  any  living  man  on  earth. 

The  next  speaker  was  the  Rev.  R.  A.  Torrey,  who 
said: 

"It  is  often  the  first  duty  of  a  pastor  to  speak 
words  of  comfort  to  those  whose  hearts  are  aching 
with  sorrow  and  breaking  underneath  the  burden 
of  death,  but  this  is  utterly  unnecessary  to-day. 
The  God  of  all  comfort  has  already  abundantly  com- 
forted them,  and  they  will  be  able  to  comfort  others. 
I  have  spent  hours  in  the  past  few  days  with  those 
who  were  nearest  to  our  departed  friend,  and  the 
words  I  have  heard  from  them  have  been  words  of 
'  Rest  in  God,  and  triumph. ' 

"As  one  of  them  has  said:  'God  must  be  answer- 
ing the  prayers  that  are  going  up  for  us  all  over  the 
world,  we  are  being  so  wonderfully  sustained,' 
Another  has  said :  'His  last  four  glorious  hours  of 
life  have  taken  all  the  sting  out  of  death,'  and  still 
another,  'Be  sure  that  every  word  to-day  is  a  word 
of  triumph. ' 

"Two  thoughts  has  God  laid  upon  my  heart  this 
hour.  The  first  is  that  wonderful  letter  of  Paul  in 
I.  Corinthians  xv.  lo — 'By  the  grace  of  God  I  am 
what  I  am. '  God  wonderfully  magnified  His  grace 
in  the  life  of  D.  L.  Moody.  God  was  magnified  in 
his  birth.  The  babe  that  was  born  62  years  ago — 
the  wonderful  soul  was  God's  gift  to  the  world. 
How  much  that  meant  to  the  world ;  how  much  the 
world  has  been  blessed  and  benefited  by  it  we  shall 
never  know  this  side  of  the  coming  of  Christ. 
God's  grace  was  magnified  in  his  conversion.       He 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  215 

was  bom  in  sin,  as  we  are,  but  God  by  the  power  of 
His  word,  the  regenerating  power  of  His  Holy  Spirit, 
made  him  a  mighty  man  of  God.  How  much  the 
conversion  of  that  boy  in  Boston  43  years  ago  meant 
to  the  world  no  man  can  tell,  but  it  was  all  God's 
grace  that  did  it. 

"God's  grace  and  love  was  magnified  again  in  the 
development  of  that  character.  He  had  the 
strength  of  body  that  was  possessed  by  few  sons  of 
men. 

"It  was  all  from  God.  To  God  alone  was  it  due 
that  he  differed  from  other  men.  That  character 
was  God's  gift  to  a  world  that  sorely  needed  men 
like  him.  God's  grace  and  love  were  magnified 
again  in  his  service.  The  great  secret  of  his  suc- 
cess was  supernatural  power,  given  in  answer  to 
prayer. 

"Time  and  time  again  has  the  question  been  asked, 
'What  was  the  secret  of  his  wonderful  power?'  The 
question  is  easily  answered.  There  were  doubtless 
secondary  things  that  contributed  to  it,  but  the 
great  central  secret  of  his  power  was  the  anointing 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  was  simply  another  fulfill- 
ment by  God  of  the  promise  that  has  been  realized 
throughout  the  centuries  of  the  church's  history : 
'Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
shall  come  upon  you. ' 

"God  was  magnified  again  in  his  marvelous  tri- 
umph over  death,  but  what  we  call  death  had  abso- 
lutely no  terrors  for  him.  He  calmly  looked  death 
in  the  face,  and  said,  'Earth  is  receding.  Heaven 
is  opening.  God  is  calling  me. '  Is  this  death?  It 
isn't  bad  at  all.  It  is  sweet.  No  pain.  No  valley. 
'  I  have  been  within  the  gates. '     It  "is  beautiful.     It 


216  THE    LAST  FAREWELL. 

is  glorious.     '  Do  not  call  me  back.      God  is  calling 
me.' 

"This  was  God's  grace  in  Christ  that  was  thus 
magnified  in  our  brother's  triumph  over  that  last 
enemy,  death.  From  beginning  to  end,  from  the 
hour  of  his  birth  until  he  is  laid  at  rest  on  yonder 
hilltop,  Mr.  Moody's  life  has  been  a  promulgation 
of  God's  everlasting  grace  and  love. 

"The  other  thought  that  God  has  laid  upon  my 
heart  in  these  last  few  hours  are  those  of  Joshua  i.  2 
— 'Moses  My  servant  is  dead.  Now,  therefore 
arise,  go  over  this  Jordan,  thou,  and  all  this  people, 
unto  the  land  which  I  do  give  to  them. ' 

"The  death  of  Mr.  Moody  is  a  call  to  his  children, 
his  associates,  ministers  of  the  Word,  everywhere 
and  to  the  whole  church :  'Go  forward.  *  Our  leader 
has  fallen.  Let  us  give  up  the  work,  some  would 
say.  Not  for  a  moment.  Listen  to  what  God  says: 
'Our  leader  has  fallen.  Move  forward.  Moses  My 
servant  is  dead,  therefore  arise,  go  in  and  possess 
the  land.  As  I  was  with  D.  L.  Moody,  so  I  will  be 
with  you.     I  will  not  fail  thee  nor  forsake  thee. ' 

It  is  remarkable  how  unanimous  all  those  who 
have  been  associated  with  Mr  Moody  are  upon  this 
point.  The  great  institutions  that  he  has  estab- 
lished at  Northfield,  Mt.  Hermon,  Chicago,  and  the 
work  they  repsesent  must  be  pushed  to  the  front  as 
never  before.  Many  men  are  looking  for  a  great 
revivial. 

"Mr.  Moody  himself  said  when  he  felt  the  call  of 
death  at  Kansas  City:  'I  know  how  much  better  it 
would  be  for  me  to  go,  but  we  are  on  the  verge  of  a 
great  revival,  like  that  of  1857,  and  I  want  to  have 
a  hand  in  it.'     He  will  have  a  mighty  hand  in  it. 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  217 

His  death,  with  the  triumphal  scenes  that  surround 
it,  are  part  of  God's  way  of  answering  the  prayers 
that  have  been  going  up  for  so  long  in  our  land  for 
a  revival. 

"From  this  bier  there  goes  up  to-day  a  call  to  the 
ministry,  to  the  church:  'Forward.'  Seek,  claim, 
receive  the  anointing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  then 
go,  forthwith,  to  every  corner,  preach  in  public  and 
in  private  to  every  man,  woman  and  child  the  infal- 
lible word  of  God. ' ' 

After  Mr.  Torrey  had  finished.  Bishop  Mallalieu 
said: 

' '  Servant  of  God,  well  done.  Thy  glorious  war- 
fare passed,  battles  fought,  the  race  is  over,  and 
thou  art  crowned  at  last. 

•'I  first  met  and  became  acquainted  with  him 
whose  death  we  mourn,  in  London,  in  the  summer 
of  1875.  From  that  day,  when  he  moved  the 
masses  of  the  world's  metropolis,  to  the  hour  when 
he  answered  the  call  of  God  to  come  up  higher,  I 
have  known  him,  esteemed  him,  and  loved  him. 
Surely  we  may  say,  and  the  world  will  indorse  the 
affirmation,  that  in  his  death  one  of  the  truest, 
bravest,  purest,  and  most  influential  men  of  this 
wonderful  nineteenth  century  has  passed  to  his  rest 
and  his  reward. 

"With  feelings  of  unspeakable  loss  and  absolute 
regret  we  gather  about  the  casket  that  contains  all 
that  is  mortal  of  Dwight  L.  Moody,  and  yet  a 
mighty  uplift  must  come  to  each  one  of  us  as  we 
think  of  what  his  character  and  achievements  were. 
He  was  one  who  never  turned  his  back,  but  breasted 
forward,  never  doubting  the  clouds  would  break, 
never  dreaming  that,  though  right  was  worsted, 
wrong  would  triumph. 


218  THE  LAST  FAREWELL. 

"In  bone  and  brawn  and  brain  he  was  a  typical 
New  Englander.  He  was  descended  from  the 
choicest  New  England  stock.  He  was  born  of  a 
New  England  mother,  and  from  his  earliest  life  he 
breathed  the  free  air  of  his  native  hills,  and  was 
carefully  nurtured  in  the  knowledge  of  God.  It  was 
to  be  expected  of  him  that  he  would  become  a  Chris- 
tian of  pronounced  characteristics,  for  he  consecrated 
himself  thoroughly,  completely,  and  irrevocably  to 
the  service  of  God  and  humanity. 

"The  heart  of  no  disciple  of  the  Master  ever 
breathed  with  more  genuine,  sympathetic  and 
utterly  unselfish  loyalty  than  did  the  great,  gener- 
ous, loving  heart  of  our  translated  friend,  because 
he  held  fast  to  the  absolute  truth  of  the  Bible,  and 
unequivocally  and  intensely  believed  it  to  be  the 
inherent  word  of  God ;  because  he  preached  the  gos- 
pel, rather  than  talked  about  the  gospel;  because 
he  used  his  mother  tongue,  the  terse,  clear-ringing, 
straightforward  Saxon;  because  he  had  the  pro- 
foundest  sense  of  brotherhood  with  all  poor  unfor- 
tunate and  every  outcast  people;  because  he  was 
unaffectedly  tender  and  patient  with  the  weak  and 
the  sinful;  because  he  hated  evil  as  thoroughly  as 
he  loved  goodness;  because  he  knew  mightily  how  to 
lead  a  penitent  soul  to  the  Saviour ;  because  he  had 
the  happy  art  of  arousing  Christian  people  to  a  vivid 
sense  of  their  obligations  and  inciting  them  to  the 
performance  of  their  duties;  because  he  had  in  his 
own  soul  a  conscious,  joyous  experience  of  personal 
salvation. 

"The  people  flocked  to  his  services,  they  greeted 
him  gladly,  they  were  led  to  Christ,  and  he  came  to 
be  honored  and  prized  by  all  denominations,  so  that 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  219 

to-day  all  Protestantism  recognizes  the  fact  that  he 
was  God's  servant,  an  ambassador  of  Christ,  and 
indeed  a  chosen  vessel  to  bear  the  name  of  Jesus  to 
the  nations. 

"We  shall  not  again  behold  his  manly  form,  ani- 
mated with  life;  hear  his  thrilling  voice,  or  be 
moved  by  his  consecrated  personality ;  but  if  we  are 
true  and  faithful  to  our  Lord  we  shall  see  him  in 
glory,  for  already  he  walks  the  streets  of  the  heav- 
enly city,  and  mingles  in  the  songs  of  the  innumer- 
able company  of  white-robed  saints,  seeing  the  King 
in  his  beauty  and  awaiting  our  coming.  May  God 
grant  that  in  due  time  we  may  meet  him  over 
Jordan." 

J.  Wilbur  Chapman,  of  New  York,  the  next 
speaker,   said: 

"I  cannot  bring  myself  to  feel  this  afternoon  that 
this  service  is  a  reality.  It  seems  to  me  that  we 
must  awake  from  some  dream  and  see  again  the 
face  of  this  dear  man  of  God,  which  we  have  so 
many  times  seen.  It  is  a  new  picture  to  me  this 
afternoon.  I  never  saw  Mr.  Moody  with  his  eyes 
closed.  They  were  always  open,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  open  not  only  to  see  where  he  could  help 
others,  but  where  he  could  help  me.  His  hands 
were  always  outstretched  to  help  others.  I  never 
came  near  him  without  his  helping  me. 

(At  this  point  the  sun  came  in  through  a  crack  in 
a  blind,  and  the  rays  fell  directly  on  Mr.  Moody's 
face,  and  nowhere  else  in  the  darkened  church  did 
a  single  beam  of  sunshine  fall.) 

'  'The  only  thing  that  seems  natural  is  the  sun- 
light now  on  his  face.  There  was  always  a  halo 
around  him.     I  can  only  give  a  slight  tribute  of  the 


220  THE   LAST  FAREWELL. 

help  he  has  done  me.  I  can  only  especially  dedicate 
myself  to  God,  that  I,  with  others,  can  preach  the 
gospel  he  taught. 

"When  a  student  in  college,  Mr.  Moody  found  me. 
I  had  no  object  in  Christ.  He  pointed  me  to  the 
hope  in  God;  he  saw  my  heart,  and  I  saw  his  Savior. 
I  have  had  a  definite  life  since  then.  When  perplex- 
ities have  arisen,  from  those  lips  came  the  words, 
'Who  are  you  doubting?  If  you  believe  in  God's 
word,  who  are  you  doubting?'  I  was  a  pastor,  a 
preacher,  without  much  result.  One  day  Mr.  Moody 
came  to  me,  and,  with  one  hand  on  my  shoulder  and 
the  other  on  the  open  Word  of  God,  he  said :  'Young 
man,  you  had  better  get  more  of  this  into  your  life,* 
and  when  I  became  an  evangelist  myself,  in  per- 
plexity, I  would  still  sit  at  his  feet  and  every  per- 
plexity would  vanish  just  as  mist  before  the  rising 
sun.  And,  indeed,  I  never  came  without  the  desire 
to  be  a  better  man,  and  be  more  like  him,  as  he  was 
like  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  the  dearest  friend  I  have 
had.  If  my  own  father  were  lying  in  the  coffin  I 
could  not  feel  more  the  sense  of  loss. 

The  Rev.  A.  T.  Pierson  spoke  next,  saying: 

"When  a  great  tree  falls,  you  know,  not  only  by 
its  branches,  but  by  its  roots,  how  much  soil  it  drew 
up  as  it  fell.  I  know  of  no  other  man  who  has 
fallen  in  this  century  having  as  wide  a  tract  of 
uprooting  as  this  man  who  has  just  left  us. 

"I  have  been  thinking  of  the  four  departures  dur- 
ing the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  of  Charles  Spur- 
geon  of  London,  A.  J.  Gordon  of  Boston,  Catherine 
Booth,  mother  of  the  Salvation  Army,  and  George 
Muller  of  Bristol,  England,  and  not  one  made  the 
worldwide  commotion  in  their  departure  that  Dwight 
Moody  has  caused. 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  221 

"Now,  I  think  we  ought  to  be  very  careful  of 
what  is  said.  There  is  a  temptation  to  say  more 
than  ought  to  be  said,  and  we  should  be  careful  to 
speak  as  in  the  presence  of  God.  This  is  a  time  to 
glorify  God. 

"Dwight  L.  Moody  was  a  great  man;  that  man, 
when  he  entered  the  church,  in  1856,  in  Boston, 
after  ten  months  of  probation,  was  told  by  his  pastor 
that  he  was  not  a  sound  believer.  That  pastor, 
taking  him  aside,  told  him  he  had  better  keep  still 
in  prayer  meeting.  The  man  the  church  held  out 
at  arm's  length  has  become  the  preacher  of  preach- 
ers, the  teacher  of  teachers,  the  evangelist  of  evan- 
gelists. It  is  a  most  humiliating  lesson  for  the 
church  of  God. 

"When,  in  1858,  he  decided  to  give  all  his  time, 
he  gave  the  key  to  his  future.  I  say  everything 
D.  L.  Moody  has  touched  has  been  a  success.  Do 
you  know  that  with  careful  reckoning  he  has  reached 
100,000,000  of  people  since  he  first  became  a  Chris- 
tian? You  may  take  all  the  years  of  public  services 
in  this  land  and  Great  Britain,  take  into  considera- 
tion all  the  addresses  he  delivered,  and  all  the  audi- 
ences of  his  churches,  and  it  will  reach  100,000,000. 
Take  into  consideration  all  the  people  his  books 
have  reached  and  the  languages  into  which  they 
have  been  translated,  look  beyond  his  evangelistic 
work  to  the  work  of  education,  the  schools,  the 
Chicago  Bible  Institute,  and  the  Bible  Institute 
here.  Scores  of  people  in  the  world  owe  their  exist- 
ence to  Dwight  L.  Moody  as  a  means  of  their  con- 
secration. 

"I  want  to  say  a  word  of  Mr.  Moody's  entrance 
into  heaven.       When  he  entered  into  heaven  there 


222  THE   LAST  FAREWELL. 

must  have  been  an  unusual  commotion.  I  want  to 
ask  you  to-day  whether  you  can  think  of  any  other 
man  of  the  last  half-century  whose  coming  so  many 
souls  would  have  welcomed  at  the  gates  of  heaven. 
It  was  a  triumphal  entrance  into  glory. 

"No  man  who  has  been  associated  with  him  in 
Christian  work  has  not  seen  that  there  is  but  one 
way  to  live,  and  that  way  to  live  wholly  for  God. 
The  thing  that  D.  L.  Moody  stood  for  and  will 
stand  for  for  centuries  to  come  was  his  living  only  for 
God.  He  made  mistakes,  no  doubt,  but  if  any  of  us 
is  without  sin  in  this  respect,  we  might  raise  a  stone 
at  him,  but  I  am  satisfied  that  the  mistakes  of  D. 
L.  Moody  were  the  mistakes  of  a  stream  that  over- 
flowed its  banks.  It  is  a  great  deal  better  to  be  full 
and  overflowing  than  to  be  empty  and  have  nothing 
to  overflow. 

"I  feel  myself  called  to-day  by  the  presence  of 
God  to  give  the  eye  that  is  left  to  me  more  wholly 
to  him.  Mr.  Moody,  John  Wanamaker,  James 
Spurgeon  (brother  of  Charles),  and  myself  were 
born  in  the  same  year.  Only  two  of  us  are  still 
alive.  John  Wanamaker,  let  us  still  live. wholly  for 
God." 

Mr.  H.  M.  Wharton  of  Baltimore,  spoke  in  behalf 
of  the  Southern  States.     He  said : 

"I  am  sure,  dear  friends,  that  if  the  people  of  the 
South  could  express  their  feeling  to-day  they  would 
ask  me  to  say  we  all  loved  Mr.  Moody ;  we  did  love 
him,  with  all  our  hearts.  It  seems  to  me  that  when 
he  went  inside  the  gates  of  heaven  he  left  the  gates 
open  a  little,  and  a  little  of  the  light  fell  upon  us 
all. 

"As  I  go  from  this  place  to-day  I-  am  more  con- 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  223 

vinced  that  I  desire  to  live  and  be  a  more  faithful 
minister  and  more  earnest  Christian,  and  more  con- 
secrated in  my  life.  We  will  not  say  'Good  night, 
dear  Mr.  Moody, '  for  in  the  morning  we  will  meet 
again." 

As  Mr.  Wharton  ceased,  Mr.  Will  Moody  rose  in 
the  pew,  and  said  he  would  like  to  speak  of  his 
father  as  a  parent.     He  said: 

"As  a  son  I  want  to  say  a  few  words  of  him  as  a 
father.  We  have  heard  from  his  pastor,  his  associ- 
ates and  friends,  and  he  was  just  as  true  a  father.  I 
don't  think  he  showed  up  in  any  way  better  than 
when,  on  one  or  two  occasions,  in  dealing  with  us 
as  children,  with  his  impulsive  nature  he  spoke 
rather  sharply.  We  have  known  him  to  come  to  us 
and  say:  'My  children,  my  son,  my  daughter,  I 
spoke  quickly ;  I  did  wrong.  I  want  you  to  forgive 
me. '     That  was  D.  L.  Moody  as  a  father. 

"He  was  not  yearning  to  go;  he  loved  his  work. 
Life  was  very  attractive;  it  seems  as  though  on 
that  early  morning  as  he  had  one  foot  upon  the 
threshold,  it  was  given  him  for  our  sake  to  give  us  a 
word  of  comfort.  He  said :  'This  is  bliss ;  it  is  like 
a  trance.  If  this  is  death,  it  is  beautiful. '  And  his 
face  lighted  up  as  he  mentioned  those  whom  he 
saw. 

"We  could  not  call  him  back;  we  tried  to  for  a 
moment,  but  we  could  not.  We  thank  God  for  his 
home  life,  for  his  true  life,  and  we  thank  God  that 
he  was  our  father,  and  that  he  led  each  one  of  his 
children  to  know  Jesus  Christ." 

Dr.  Schofield  then  called  upon  the  Hon.  John 
Wanamaker  of  Philadelphia,  who  said: 

"If  I  had  any  words  to  say  it  would  be  that  the 


224  THE   LAST  FAREWELL. 

best  commentary  on  the  Scriptures,  the  best  pictures 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  were  in  our  knowledge  of 
the  beautiful  man  who  is  sleeping  in  our  presence 
to-day.  For  the  first  time  I  can  understand  better 
the  kind  of  a  man  Paul  was,  and  Nehemiah,  and 
Oliver  Cromwell.  I  think  of  Mr.  Moody  as  a  Stone- 
wall Jackson  of  the  Church  of  God  of  this,  century. 
But  the  sweetest  of  all  thoughts  of  him  are  his 
prayers  and  his  kindnesses.  It  was  as  if  we  were  all 
taken  into  his  family  and  he  had  a  familiarity  with 
every  one  and  we  were  his  closest  friends. 

"It  is  not  alone  in  Northfield  these  buildings  will 
stand,  but  over  a  hundred  million  buildings  that 
owe  their  standing  to  his  efforts.  Christian  associa- 
tions and  churches  that  are  erected  for  use  both 
Sundays  and  week  days.  There  is  not  any  place  in 
this  country  that  you  can  go  without  seeing  the  work 
of  this  man  of  God.  It  seems  to  make  every  man 
seem  small  because  he  lived  so  far  above  us,  as  we 
crept  close  to  his  feet.  It  is  true  of  every  one  who 
sought  to  be  like  him. 

"I  can  run  back  into  the  beginning  of  his  manhood 
and  there  have  the  privilege  of  being  close  to  him. 
I  can  call  itp  personal  friends  that  were  at  the 
head  of  railroads,  that  were  distinguished  in  finance 
and  business,  and  I  declare  to  you,  great  as  their 
successes  were,  I  don't  believe  that  there  is  one  of 
them  who  would  not  gladly  have  changed  places 
with  D.  L.  Moody. 

"The  Christian  laborer  I  believe  to-day  looms  up 
more  luminous  than  any  man  who  lived  in  the  cen- 
tury. It  seems  as  if  it  were  a  vision  when  the  one 
who  has  passed  avfay  stood  in  Philadelphia  last 
month,  when  on  his  way  to  Kansas  City,  and,  with 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  227 

tears  in  his  eyes,  he  said  to  me  with  a  sigh:  'If  I 
could  only  hold  one  great  city  in  the  East  before  I 
die,  I  think  it  might  help  other  cities  to  do  the  same. ' 
Still  trusting  God,  he  turned  his  back  on  his  home 
and  family  and  went  a  thousand  miles  carrying  that 
burden,  and  it  was  too  much  for  him.  A  great 
many  of  the  people  of  the  sixties  are  quitting  work, 
and  if  anything  is  to  be  done  for  God  it  is  time  we 
consecrate  ourselves  to  him." 

The  service  closed  with  the  singing  by  the  male 
quartet  of  "Blessed  Hope  of  the  Coming  of  the 
Lord."  The  music  for  this  selection  was  recently 
arranged  by  Mrs.  William  R.  Moody.  Those  in  the 
church  immediately  left  the  building  and  the  casket 
was  closed. 

At  4:40  the  casket  was  taken  outside  and  the  cor- 
tege started  for  Round  Top.  The  Rev.  Messrs. 
Schofield  and  Torrey  were  first,  followed  by  the 
bier,  escorted  by  thirty-two  Mt,  Hermon  students. 
Then  came  the  honorary  pallbearers,  and  Ira  D. 
Sankey,  George  Stebbins,  Dr.  Wood,  Col.  Janeway 
of  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  C.  A.  Hopkins  of  Boston, 
H.  M.  Moore  of  Boston,  Gen.  J.  J.  Estey  of  Brattle- 
boro,  R.  C.  Morse  of  the  international  committee, 
many  ministers  and  friends,  and  then  the  carriages 
containing  the  family  and  mourners. 

At  the  grave  all  sang  "Jesus  Lover  of  My  Soul. " 
Dr.  Torrey  offered  prayer,  and  Dr.  Schofield  pro- 
nounced the  benediction.  After  the  people  had 
left  the  grave  the  casket  was  opened,  and  the  family 
took  a  last  look  at  Mr.  Moody. 

The  following  tribute  and  analysis  of  his  char- 
acter and  work  appeared  in  "The  Independent"  of 
December  28,  1899: 

13 


228  THE  LAST   FAREWELL. 

Succeeding  generations  call  out  each  its  own 
great  evangelist.  For  the  generation  that  is  past 
that  man  was  Dwight  L.  Moody. 

Mr.  Moody  was  an  example  of  the  broadening 
educational  power  of  earnest  religion,  for  that  was 
about  all  the  education  he  had.  But  nature  had 
endowed  him  with  a  sound  mind  and  great  com- 
mon sense.  All  his  schooling  was  a  few  years  in  a 
district  school;  and  forty- four  years  ago,  like  so 
many  other  boys,  he  quitted  the  farm  at  North- 
field  at  the  age  of  seventeen  to  seek  his  fortune  in 
Boston.  To  assume  the  obligations  of  Christian 
life  and  to  join  the  Mount  Hermon  Congregational 
Church  was  to  him  a  speedy  pleasure  and  duty,  and 
it  was  his  conviction  that  this  meant  a  life  of  doing 
and  not  of  receiving  good.  From  Boston  the  boy 
went  to  Chicago,  and  immediately  threw  himself 
into  Christian  work.  At  first  it  was  thought  that 
he  was  too  ignorant,  too  ill-trained  to  teach  in  the 
Sunday-school  or  take  part  in  prayer  meetings;  but 
he  brought  in  his  own  ragged  scholars,  and  by  the 
time  he  was  twenty-three  he  was  running  a  mission 
with  sixty  teachers  and  one  thousand  pupils  in  the 
Sunday-school,  and  had  found  it  his  duty  to  give 
himself  wholly  to  religious  work. 

Mr.  Moody  was  two  men;  an  evangelist  and  an 
organizer.  He  was  the  best  known,  the  most 
impressive  and  simplj''  eloquent  of  all  our  evangel- 
ists. Millions  have  flocked  to  hear  him  speak.  The 
month  before  he  died  he  was  listened  to  by  audi- 
ences of  ten  and  fifteen  thousand.  His  influence 
has  been  immense  in  Great  Britain  and  in  this 
country.  Tens,  if  not  hundreds,  of  thousands  have 
been  converted  in  his  meetings.     He  was  simple, 


THE   LAST   FAREWELL.  229 

unaffected,  direct,  idiomatic,  full  of  story  and 
equally  of  epigram,  but  always  in  deep  earnest. 
Those  who  heard  knew  that  they  were  listening  to 
a  great  earnest  soul,  one  who  believed  with  inten- 
sity in  what  he  said,  who  felt  he  had  the  Lord's 
commission.  He  educated  a  school  of  evangelists, 
men  of  great  ability  and  great  success,  but  they  all 
looked  up  to  him  as  their  leader.  They  were  men 
of  collegiate  and  theological  education ;  all  he  had 
learned  was  from  reading  his  Bible.  But  such  a 
Bible  as  his  was!  It  was  margined  all  over  with 
the  notes  of  his  study  and  the  substance  of  his 
addresses.     That  was  one  Dwight  L.  Moody. 

The  other  Moody  was  the  organizer.  He  was  the 
builder  of  churches  and  Christian  Association  halls 
and  the  founder  of  schools.  He  had  the  gift  of 
finding  men  of  wealth  that  would  support  his  work, 
and  a  great  institution  has  risen  up  in  Chicago  as 
the  fruit  of  his  labor,  while  Northfield  has  become 
famous  as  his  birthplace  and  the  seat  of  the  North- 
field  Seminary  for  girls  and  the  Mount  Hermon 
Academy  for  boys  and  the  Bible  Training  School  for 
the  instruction  of  Sunday-school  teachers  and  relig- 
ious workers.  The  work  of  the  evangelist  fades  from 
sight  as  men  die,  and  the  impulses  they  have  gained 
pass  into  the  life  of  other  men ;  but  the  institution 
lives,  and  in  the  generations  to  come  Mr.  Moody 
will  be  knov/n  as  the  founder  of  flourishing  Christian 
schools  that  rest  upon  the  Bible,  and  whose  great 
purpose  is  to  develop  the  evangelistic  spirit  in  those 
who  attend. 

We  have  said  that  a  chief  characteristic  of  Mr. 
Moody  was  his  stiotig  common  sense.  As  a  plain 
student  of  a  plain   Bible,  no  scholar  in  history  or 


230  THE   LAST  FAREWELL. 

criticism,  he  was  of  course  a  conservative.  As  a 
literalist  he  was  naturally  led  into  Premillena- 
rianism,  and  many  of  the  speakers  at  his  summer 
Bible  conferences  at  Northfield  were  chosen  from 
those  who  believed  with  him.  But  he  would  never 
allow  this  to  be  made  a  fad.  Just  so  the  Keswick 
school  of  believers,  with  which  he  sympathized, 
could  never  make  him  their  mouthpiece.  He 
would  give  their  better  men  place  with  gladness, 
but  he  understood  what  was  the  breadth  of  Christian 
life  and  faith,  and  there  was  no  bitterness  in  his 
soul  for  those  who  held  a  more  liberal  faith  than 
he.  What  he  wanted  was  Christian  life,  and, 
above  all.  Christian  service.  The  man  that  would 
preach  the  Gospel  and  bring  souls  to  Christ  was 
the  man  he  wanted  and  in  whom  he  believed.  His 
heart  was  too  large,  his  purposes  too  grand  to  be 
confined  in  narrower  limits  than  those  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  For  denominations  he  cared  nothing; 
for  Christianity  he  would  give  up  his  life.  Every 
one  believed  in  him,  no  matter  of  what  faith  or 
unfaith ;  all  knew  that  Dwight  L.  Moody  was  an 
honest,  sincere,  devoted  Christian. 

Mr.  Moody's  great  evangelistic  successes  have  not 
been  during  the  past  ten  years.  He  has  had  great 
meetings,  but  those  who  attended  were  mainly 
church  members.  It  would  seem  as  if,  for  the 
present  at  least,  the  era  of  revivals  was  ^waning. 
Perhaps  Mr.  Moody  himself  saw  this,  and  gave 
himself  with  the  greater  zeal  to  Christian  education, 
for  the  better  Christianity  and  the  better  hope  of 
the  Church  is  found  rather  in  the  education  of  the 
young  than  in  the  conversion  of  the  old.  It  will 
be  a  blessed  time  for  the  Church  when  revivals  are 


THE   LAST  FAREWELL.  231 

no  longer  needed,  when  children  are  taught  and 
expected  to  take  upon  themselves  the  obligations 
of  Christian  life,  not  in  the  way  of  a  formal  con- 
firmation at  a  given  age,  but  with  a  serious  and 
settled  purpose  to  be  followers  of  our  Lord.  This 
is  what  is  meant  by  the  developing  work  of  the 
Sunday-school  and  especially  of  our  various  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  societies.  When  such  influences  as 
they  foster  in  the  Church  pervade  the  community 
there  will  be  no  longer  need  for  the  first  Mr.  Moody, 
only  for  the  work  of  the  other  Moody,  who  under- 
stood the  coming  age  and  the  essential  importance 
of  Christian  education. 

Mr.  Moody's  life  teaches  us  that,  while  the  Church 
needs  scholars,  what  she  needs  most  of  all  is  the 
impulse  of  Christian  devotion,  that  force  which 
compelled  St.  Paul,  and  has  compelled  a  thousand 
others  in  all  branches  of  the  Church  on  whom  was 
laid  the  burden  of  a  lost  world,  and  who  have  said, 
"Wo  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel."  Mr. 
Moody's  life  was  well  filled  out  with  work  nobly 
accomplished,  and  his  death  was  the  fit  end  of  a 
life  of  faith  and  service.  His  memory  is  one  of 
the  treasures  of  the  Christian  Church. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


EULOGY. 


In  connection  with  the  passing  of  the  world's  great 
evangelist,  Dwight  L.  Moody,  many  instances  of  his 
great  labors  are  brought  to  mind.  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  receives  into  its  membership  many  who  are 
humble  in  life,  of  limited  faculties,  but  it  also  has 
a  place  for  men  destined  to  take  their  places  in 
the  world's  history.  To  this  class  belonged  Mr. 
Moody, 

Moody  was  a  product  of  the  Christian  church. 
That  he  was  incidentally  a  product  of  the  Congre- 
gational church  is  of  little  moment.  It  is,  however; 
a  significant  fact  that  he  was  a  product  of  the 
Christian  church. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  young  man  who  left  a 
country  home  to  enter  a  wholesale  shoe  house  in 
New  York  city.  Every  Sabbath  morning  he  was 
seen  in  the  balconj'-  of  the  church,  over  which  Dr. 
Kirk  was  at  that  time  pastor.  His  head  was  often 
times  bowed  in  sleep  when  the  sermon  closed,  but 
one  day  he  awoke  in  time  to  hear  the  closing  words. 
"For  His  sake,  Amen."  He  went  away  thinking, 
and  as  a  result  of  that  thought  the  world  had 
Dwight  L.  Mood}^,  whose  earthly  ministry  closed 
last   Friday.     He  was  a  product  of  the  Christian 

232 


EULOGY.  233 

church  and  the  finest  example  of  the  possibilities  of 
consecrated  labor. 

If  "minister"  means  "a  man  set  apart,"  if  it 
means  one  who  has  passed  through  some  educa- 
tional institution,  then  Moody  was  not  a  minister. 
But  if  you  go  back  to  the  first  use  by  the  church  of 
the  word  then  you  will  find  that  he  was  a  minister. 

His  services  stirred  both  worlds.  Across  the 
water  he  shook  the  church  into  a  new  life,  and  in 
this  country  his  work  resulted  in  the  redemption  of 
myriad  souls.  We  are  told  that  as  the  result  of  his 
consecrated  labors  we  have  had  the  greatest  Chris- 
tian work  this  world  has  ever  seen.  Compare  him 
with  the  greatest  pulpit  orators,  men  prominent  in 
all  denominations,  and  Dwight  L.  Moody  towers  a 
little  above  them  all. 

What  was  the  secret  of  his  power?  In  the  first 
place.  Moody  was  a  most  profoundly  educated  man. 
He  was  never  in  a  college,  never  entered  the  halls 
of  a  divinity  school,  never  even  had  an  academy 
education,  yet  he  was  an  educated  man.  He  had 
the  power  to  think  upon  large  themes  and  he  was  a 
student  of  the  Bible.  The  man  who  will  study  this 
book  forty  years  will  become  an  educated  man.  I 
would  not  under-estimate  the  learning  of  schools. 
Go  to  school,  go  to  college  just  as  much  as  you  can, 
but  let  me  remind  you  if  you  are  studying  this  book 
you  are  getting  a  university  education. 

Mr.  Moody  was  a  man  of  splendid  poise.  An 
evangelist  necessarily  has  a  tendency  toward  undue 
emotionalism;  to  attract  the  public  by  working 
upon  their  emotions.  Moody  balanced  the  emo- 
tional side  by  the  educational  side,  in  establishing 
the  schools  at  Northfield. 


234  EULOGY. 

Evangelists  are  apt  to  go  to  extremes,  to  have 
some  peculiar  hobby,  some  different  doctrine. 
Moody  was  surrounded  by  a  lot  of  religious  cranks, 
men  who  held  peculiar  views  in  abnormal  propor- 
tions.    Through  it  all  he  never  lost  his  poise. 

Another  temptation  of  the  evangelist  is  narrow- 
ness. Into  his  life  comes  unconsciously  this  spirit 
of  narrowness.  Yet  Dwight  L.  Moody  was  as  broad 
a  man  as  the  country  held.  George  Adams  Smith, 
the  great  liberal  thinker  of  Scotland,  was  invited 
by  Mr.  Moody  to  speak  at  Northfield.  At  once  a 
great  hue  and  cry  arose  and  some  of  the  leading 
evangelists  of  the  country  went  to  him  and  pro- 
tested. Moody  took  time  to  pray  over  the  matter 
and  finally  decided  that  Smith  should  come.  Moody's 
broadness  was  based  on  character. 

He  was  a  man  who  depended  utterly  on  God. 
When  asked  when  he  was  born  he  answered:  "I 
was  born  in  the  flesh  in  1837,  but  I  was  born  in  the 
spirit  in  1 85 1." 

Moody  never  had  that  smirk  of  boundless  self 
conceit.  He  once  said:  "I  am  thoroughly  tired 
of  the  man  who  is  so  good  he  can  save  himself." 

Nobody  knows  how  much  money  Moody  collected, 
but  he  gathered  an  immense  amount.  It  has  been 
estimated  as  high  as  $10,000,000.  He  had  a  chance 
to  be  a  wealthy  man,  yet  he  died  poor.  He  lived 
what  he  preached.  He  called  upon  men  to  sacri- 
fice, to  live  the  life  that  Jesus  lived. 

Out  in  the  little  white  farm  house  in  the  Berk- 
shire hills,  amid  all  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of 
nature  his  life  fluttered  out  and  the  angels  came 
and  took  his  soul  to  the  heaven  above.     That  was 


EULOGY.  235 

the  end  of  Dwight  L.    Moody. — Rev.   R.  W.   Mc- 
Laughlin,   Kalamazoo,    Mich. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  Paul  as  great, 
and  so  he  was.  I  venture  to  believe  that  there  are 
tens  of  hundreds  all  around  us  that  are  easily  his 
equals  —  men,  therefore,  that  would  be  just  as 
mighty  in  their  apostleship  if  they  had  the  same 
measure  of  God's  spirit  upon  them,  had  allowed 
themselves  to  be  made  as  divine  as  he— men  who 
would  be  able  to  give  an  equal  impulse  to  the  pro- 
gress of  Christian  civilization.  * 

The  world  has  lost  very  much  such  a  man  in  the 
person  of  Mr.  Moody.  We  hear  a  good  deal  said  at 
present  about  his  exceptional  tact,  and  about  his 
phenomenal  good  sense  and  other  striking  features 
that  are  supposed  to  have  been  part  of  his  original 
endowment.  As  for  his  native  abilities,  the  story, 
I  believe,  still  remains  uncontradicted  that  when  he 
first  applied  for  church  membership  it  was  proposed 
to  receive  him  on  probation  simply,  as  he  appeared 
insufficiently  intelligent  to  appreciate  the  meaning 
of  the  step  he  was  taking. — Rev.  Dr.  Charles  H. 
Parkhurst,  New  York. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Moody  attracts  the  attention  of 
the  Christian  world.  Though  not  an  old  man,  his 
vast  influence  for  good  had  continued  for  half  a 
century,  reaching  into  every  English-speaking 
country. 

To  have  seen  and  heard  a  really  great  man  for  a 

single  time  is    a  permanent  gain   to  every  young 

person;  and  such  opportunity  should  be  sought  at 

the  cost  of  trouble  and  expense  if  need  be. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  have  been  somewhat 
14 


236  EULOGY. 

familiar  with  Mr.  Moody's  work  during  his  earlier 
years.  Most  young  and  middle-aged  people  now 
think  of  Mr.  Moody  as  an  evangelist  only,  as  that 
work  has,  during  the  past  twenty-five  or  thirty  years, 
largely  overshadowed  his  earlier  efforts.  His  prior 
activities  that  attracted  attention  were  in  the  Sun- 
day-schools and  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions. Little  is  now  said  of  these,  but  I  am  not 
sure  that  they  were  not  more  far-reaching  in  results 
than  even  his  noted  evangelistic  work  in  later  years. 
They  set  in  motion  a  new  set  of  workers  and  new 
methods,  the  results  from  which  are  now  difficult  to 
fully  appreciate.  When  Mr.  Moody  first  went  to 
Chicago,  Sunday-schools  were  largely  composed  of 
children  of  church-going  people,  conducted  in  a 
formal  manner  not  especially  inviting  to  children. 
There  had  not  been  much  of  the  "going  out  into  the 
byways  and  hedges  and  compelling  the  wayward  to 
come  in,  "done  at  that  time.  His  great  Sunday- 
school,  gathered  almost  exclusively  from  the  worst 
city  element,  including  young  and  old,  attracted 
attention  the  country  over.  Then  followed  great 
gatherings  of  children  from  the  churchless  classes, 
like  that  at  Akron,  Ohio,  built  up  by  the  late  great 
manufacturer,  Lewis  Miller,  so  long  the  president 
of  the  Chautauqua  Assembly,  and  in  Philadelphia 
by  John  Wanamaker,  the  noted  merchant  and  recent 
Postmaster-General,  and  others  of  national  renown, 
manned  by  the  best  lay  talent  from  every  calling. 
The  evangelical  modern  mission  Sunday-schools,  if 
not  commencing  with,  was  given  a  wonderful  for- 
warding impetus  by  Mr.  Moody's  early  work.  For 
years  he  was  the  leading  and  inspiring  spirit  in  the 
great  Sunday-school  assemblages  of  the  land. 


EULOGY.  237 

His  vivifying  influence  on  the  few  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Associations  then  struggling  along  under  the  preju- 
dices of  conservative  churches  and  many  good  men, 
was  even  more  marked.  His  desire  to  help  young 
men  living  sinful  lives  seemed  unbounded.  He  had 
been  there  himself.  I  have  often  heard  him  give  his 
experiences  before  conversion,  speaking  of  himself 
as  a  "miserable  wharf  rat  on  the  docks  of  Bos- 
ton. ' '  He  seemed  confident  that  every  young  man  in 
like  condition  could  be  reached  and  reclaimed  if 
Christians  cared  to  make  the  effort.  He  developed 
a  wonderful  faculty  of  doing  this  himself  and  inspir- 
ing others  to  attempt  it.  He  found  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
the  most  efficient  means  for  accomplishing  the  de- 
sired object.  Under  his  influence  the  organization 
in  Chicago  became  a  great  power.  He  had  a  faculty 
of  getting  moneyed  persons  interested  in  his  projects. 
Such  men  as  Marshall  Field  supported  his  work  lib- 
erally, not  only  with  their  money,  but  by  their  influ- 
ence as  prominent  business  men.  His  efficiency  in 
organizing  these  associations  was  soon  recognized, 
and  he  was  in  demand  all  over  the  country.  He 
was  the  life  and  directing  power  in  all  their  greet 
meetings.  As  representative  of  one  of  the  more 
active  associations  in  Ohio,  I  had  opportunity  to 
note  his  seemingly  unconscious  leadership  during 
several  years,  in  both  state  and  national  conven- 
tions, which  aroused  great  admiration  for  the  man. 
When  I  first  commenced  hearing  him,  he  was  but 
an  indifferent  speaker,  so  far  as  ordinary  eloquence 
goes;  but  his  earnestness  was  so  transparently 
genuine  that  he  was  always  listened  to  by  all  classes 
with  great  interest.  The  entire  absence  of  any 
semblance  to  cant,  his  good  sense  and  evident  hon- 


238  EULOGY. 

esty  of  purpose  were  conspicuous  in  all  his  addresses. 

His  tact  in  managing  difficult  or  delicate  business 
never  failed  him.  I  remember  what  promised  to  be 
a  most  painful  incident  at  an  international  conven- 
tion being  held  in  Portland,  Me.  It  was  at  a  morning 
business  session,  but  the  great  hall  was  crowded. 
Delegates  were  present  from  nearly  ever  state,  and 
several  from  England  and  Canada.  Discussing 
some  matters  that  brought  opinions  sharply  differ- 
ing, unguarded,  harsh  words  from  some  of  the  hot- 
headed delegates  threatened  a  disgraceful  scene. 
Mr.  Moody  quickly  and  without  occasioning  any 
dissent,  secured  immediate  adjournment,  and  called 
a  prayer  meeting  for  delegates  only  in  a  smaller 
room.  It  was  soon  filled,  and  the  meeting  opened, 
as  I  now  remember  it,  with  one  of  the  most  impress- 
ive prayers  I  have  ever  heard.  Men  who  a  few 
moments  before  faced  each  other  with  sullen  looks 
and  angry  words  followed  in  the  service,  and  at  the 
next  session,  the  unfortunate  business  was  disposed 
of  in  the  best  of  feeling. 

His  eloquence  and  power  as  a  speaker  improved 
rapidly,  and  the  desire  to  hear  him  was  remarkable. 
At  the  state  and  national  meetings  of  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  whenever  he  was  announced  for  an  address, 
however  large  the  hall,  provision  was  always  made 
for  one  or  two  overflow  meetings.  It  mattered  not 
how  distinguished  speakers  were  provided,  for  these 
supplemental  audiences,  they  always  insisted  on  re- 
maining till  Mr.  Moody  appeared  and  spoke  to  them, 
after  the  principal  meeting  adjourned. 

He  spoke  without  notes,  and  v/ith  such  readiness 
and  ease  that  the  common  notion  was  that  he  neither 
made  nor  needed  any  special  preparation.      I  had 


EULOGY.  239 

occasion  to  know  that  at  least  at  that  time  this  was 
a  mistake.  Whatever  the  character  of  the  audience 
he  expected  to  meet,  he  made  the  most  careful  and 
laborious  preparation  time  would  allow. 

Personally,  he  was  a  plain,  cheerful,  easily 
approached,  kindly-hearted  man.  Though  commen- 
cing without  position  or  special  training,  he  did  well 
an  important  part  of  the  world's  most  important 
work  of  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  ^- 
J.  H.  Reed,  Riverside,  Cal. 


A  great  man  has  fallen — not  a  great  scholar  or 
thinker;  not  a  great  writer  or  theologian — but  still 
a  great  man.  Mr.  Moody  was  great  in  his  influence 
over  men ;  great  in  the  work  he  accomplished ;  great 
in  that  power  which  lives  and  shapes  other  lives 
which  come  after.  He  has  made  his  mark  upon  the 
nineteenth  century  as  but  few  men  have  done.  His 
influence  in  all  directions  has  been  healthy,  pure 
and  always  on  the  right  side.  The  effect  of  his 
preaching  upon  preachers  has  been  inspiring  and 
helpful  There  were  those  who  criticised  him,  but 
when  his  critics  heard  his  glowing  words,  so  full  of 
the  divine  love,  they  could  but  acknowledge  his 
sincerity  and  also  his  power.  There  are  some  les- 
sons which  the  Christian  churches  should  learn 
from  the  life  work  of  Mr.  Moody. 

He  has  shown  what  a  layman  without  great  learn- 
ing can  do  to  advance  Christianity.  Mr.  Moody 
had  great  administrative  ability.  He  might  have 
become  a  C.  P.  Huntington  or  a  John  Wanamaker 
in  the  business  world.  He  chose  to  use  his  ability 
in  doing  God's  work  directly.  In  work  for  young 
men,  in  founding  schools  where  those  without  money 


240  EULOGY. 

could  secure  an  education,  and  in  training  workers 
for  Christian  service  he  has  accomplished  much. 

He  has  made  the  fact  plain  that  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  preached  simply^  and  earnestly,  will  com- 
mand a  hearing  and  will  transform  the  lives  of  those 
who  accept  it.  He  did  not  defend  Christianity;  he 
preached  it.  He  did  not  prop  up  the  cross  of  Christ 
lest  it  should  fall ;  he  pointed  men  to  it  and  to  Him 
who  died  upon  it.  With  absolute  faith  in  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Bible,  it  was  his  mission  to  present  a 
living  Savior  to  dying  men.  He  believed  that  in 
preaching  there  should  be  less  art  and  more  heart. 
Mr.  Moody  was  a  man  of  tender  heart  and  of  great 
faith  in  God,  and  these  gave  him  great  power  w^th 

men. 

"Sen'ant  of  God,  well  done. 
Rest  from  thy  loved  employ; 
The  battle  fought,  the  victory  wonj 
Enter  thy  Master's  joy." 

— Rev.  E.  A.  Woods,  First  Baptist  Church,  San 
Francisco,  Cal. 

Wh^n  death  comes,  as  a  rule,  it  is  like  an  arrow 
pass  Ag  through  the  air,  which  soon  closes  upon  it, 
and  all  is  tranquil  again.  But  when  such  a  great 
life  and  ornament  of  the  church  as  the  late  Mr. 
Moody  was,  is  quenched,  such  an  event  somewhat 
resembles  the  apocalyptic  vial  poured  into  that 
element  named  and  which  changed  its  temperature 
and  produced  fearful  commotions. 

Well  do  I  remember  how  his  visits  to  England 
were  looked  for  by  the  churches  with  prayerful  ex- 
pectancy, and  how  his  ministrations  there  stirred 
up  the  religious  life  of  the  whole  country'',  and  re- 
sulted in  a  glorious  spiritual  harvest.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  pleasure  it  gave  me  while  living  in  South 
Africa,  when   I  read  the  reports  of  the  wonderful 


EULOGY.  241 

work  which  the  Lord  was  doing  through  His  honored 
ser%*ant  in  this  country.  Often  was  my  soul 
refreshed  in  the  midst  of  the  depressing  influences 
of  an  x\frican  life,  when  I  read  some  of  his  sweet 
evangelical  utterances.  He  was  a  great  personality, 
and  a  mighty  religious  force.  His  labors  created 
an  epoch  in  church  life.  There  was  but  one  Mr. 
Moody,  though  there  are  hosts  of  feeble  imitators; 
as  in  England  there  was  but  one  Mr.  Spurgeon, 
though  there  were  many  who  aped  him. 

No  one  can  estimate  the  amount  of  good  that  was 
accomplished  by  that  one  man,  whose  death  is  sin- 
cerely mourned  by  English-speaking  people  to-day, 
throughout  the  world.  He  was  no  fiery  recluse 
trying  to  preach  the  people  into  a  new  crusade ; 
but  like  a  mild  and  earnest  seer,  while  he  moved 
about  among  the  people,  he  bore  about  with  him  a 
reverent  consciousness  that  he  dealt  with  the 
majesty  of  man,  and  by  the  magnetic  force  of  spir- 
itual life,  drew  around  him  all  grades  and  condi- 
tions of  human  life,  which  he  directed  with  mar- 
velous power  and  clearness  of  thought  and  simplicity 
of  language,  to  the  only  refuge  for  guilty  men. 

Thank  God  for  the  life  and  labors  of  Mr.  Moody. 
— Rev.  James  Hughes.  Scranton,  Pa. 


I  was  converted  through  Mr.  Moody's  preaching, 
fourteen  years  ago,  at  Chicago.  He  was  preaching 
at  the  Chicago  Avenue  Church,  known  as  "Mood^-'s 
church."  I  was  an  infidel  prior  to  hearing  Mr. 
Moody,  and  used  to  swear  by  Bob  Ingersoll,  who 
was  my  patron  saint.  I  dropped  in  on  Mr.  Moody 
one  evening,  just  out  of  curiosity,  knowing  that  he 
was  preaching  at  this  church.     It  was  the  first  time 


^- 


242  EULOGY. 


I  had  heard  him,  and  I  was  impressed  from  the 
start.  I  went  there  to  study  the  speaker  and  the 
philosophy  of  what  he  said,  as  I  always  did  when  I 
heard  an  evangelist.  That  night  he  preached  the 
first  sermon  on  "The  Love  of  God"  that  I  had  ever 
heard — and  I  was  forty- four  years  old.  The  thing 
that  took  hold  of  me  was  the  man's  intense  earnest- 
ness. His  subject  was  "The  Prodigal  Son."  He 
dwelt  on  the  wonderful  love  of  a  father,  and  I  got 
hungry  to  learn  of  that  kind  of  love,  and  as  a  result 
of  what  I  heard  that  night,  I  went  away  and  was 
converted  a  few  days  afterward. 

At  that  time  I  was  living  at  Liberty,  in  this  State, 
owned  a  fine  farm  and  had  everything  on  it  that 
comfort  required.  I  immediately  sold  my  farm — 
threw  it  away,  in  fact — did  not  stop  to  get  a  bargain 
out  of  it,  and  went  to  preaching. 

I  got  out  a  new  book,  about  a  month  ago,  on  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  which  I  have  dedicated  to  Mr. 
Moody. — Mr.  Brown,  Editor  Ram's  Horn. 


What  are  the  secrets  of  Mr.  Moody's  power  and 
success?  I  answer:  First,  an  overwhelming  passion 
to  serve  Jesus  Christ  and  redeem  human  souls. 
Second  his  teachableness.  While  a  preacher  and 
teacher,  he  was  always  in  the  attitude  of  a  learner. 
Third,  modesty  and  humility.  He  shrank  from  being 
the  subject  of  flattery  or  even  commendation.  Once 
he  said:  "Strike  me  rather  than  praise  me." 
Fourth,  practical  common  sense.  He  always  fished 
in  the  pools  where  the  fish  were.  His  greatest 
power  consisted  in  his  ability  successfully  to  set 
others  at  work.  His  commendation  of  a  worker, 
"She  sees  things  to  do,"  applied  emphatically  to 


Cop7right,  1900,  by  Robt.  O.  Law. 

THE  EMPTY   CHAIR. 

Mr.  Moody  always  occupied  this  Chair  in  the  pulpit  at'  the  Chicago  Avenue  Church 
when  preaching  theie. 


EULOGY.  245 

Mr.  Moody.  Fifth,  his  entire  consecration.  The 
story  of  his  great  yearning  and  waiting  for  months 
for  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  one  of  the  most 
fascinating  of  the  confidential  communications  which 
he  made  in  the  Northfield  gathering  of  Christian 
workers.  He  had  power  with  God,  and  so  had 
power  with  mankind  beyond  any  other  Christian 
leader  of  his  time. 

His  death-bed  scene  was  a  touching  and  fitting 
close  of  his  noble  life.  Knowing  he  was  about  to 
depart  he  gave  tender  and  thoughtful  counsel  to  his 
wife  and  children  with  reference  to  the  continuance 
and  development  of  the  departments  of  Christian 
work  which  he  had  begun.  As  he  grew  weaker, 
and  his  vital  forces  ebbed,  he  suddenly  exclaimed 
joyously:  "I  see  earth  receding  ;  heaven  is  opening; 
God  is  calling  me!"  And  this  vigorous,  aggressive, 
successful  herald  of  Christianity  was  gone  from 
earth  to  heaven.  Shall  we  not  yearn  more  than 
ever  before,  to  so  live  that  we,  too,  may  see  the 
earth  receding,  heaven  opening,  and  hear  God  call- 
ing us  to  greater  service  and  reward? — Rev.  Dr. 
Howard  H.  Russell,  M.    E.   Church,   Delaware,  O. 


While  Henry  Ward  Beecher  preached  for  many 
years  to  the  largest  congregation  in  America  (about 
5,000),  and  Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon  addressed  the 
largest  in  Great  Britain  (about  6,000),  yet  Dwight 
Lyman  Moody  has  spoken  to  a  much  larger  number 
of  people  in  his  wandering  evangelistic  work  than 
either  of  the  other  distinguished  divines,  and  per- 
haps to  a  larger  number  of  persons  than  any  other 
speaker  of  this  or  any  other  generation. 

His  scholarship  and  oratorical  ability  have  been 


246  EULOGY. 

questioned,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  pos- 
sessed a  wonderful  and  magical  power.  At  his  last 
appearance  in  Los  Angeles  the  capacity  of  Haz- 
■7.ard's  pavilion  was  not  only  tested  to  the  utmost, 
Dut  the  doors  had  to  be  closed  against  the  throng 
that  could  not  be  accommodated.  It  has  been  so 
everywhere.  The  very  last  sermon  he  preached 
was  listened  to  by    15,000  people  in   Kansas  City. 

But,  while  Mr.  Moody  was  not  a  polished  orator, 
he  possessed  a  faculty  for  condensing  the  substance 
of  doctrines  into  pointed  paragraphs  and  striking 
apothegms,  and  was  decidedly  fertile  in  apt  and 
homely  illustrations  drawn  from  the  common  occur- 
rences of  life.  He  had  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  an- 
ecdote and  personal  experience  which,  being  related 
with  detailed  particularity,  seemed  very  real,  but  so 
far  as  their  verity  was  concerned,  they  often  partook 
more  of  the  nature  of  parable  than  fact.  But  the 
great  Master  has  set  the  precedent,  and  doubtless 
Mr.  Moody  felt  justified  in  embellishing  the  facts 
when  he  could  thus  make  more  effective  use  of  his 
material. 

Mr.  Moody  held  a  series  of  meetings  in  Boston 
two  years  ago.  Great  audiences  filled  Tremont 
Temple  throughout  his  stay.  His  methods,  intellect- 
ual, spectacular,  and  musical,  were  studied  to  ascer- 
tain the  secret  of  his  drawing  power.  Both  secular 
and  religious  press  analyzed  and  criticised  his  work. 
While  the  pews  were  crowded,  cultured  Boston  lis- 
tened coldly  if  not  cynically.  While  the  people 
appreciated  his  wit,  eloquence,  and  home  thrusts, 
they  were  unemotional,  and  at  last  the  preacher  be- 
came exasperated,  and  indulged  in  some  vigorous 
remarks  that  seemed  to  have  a  local  flavor,  and  did 


EULOGY.  247 

have  the  effect  of  arousing  their  slow  susceptibil- 
ities. 

After  enlarging  upon  the  sins  of  church  members, 
Mr.  Moody  asked:  "Why  are  your  prayer-meet- 
ings so  dead  that  you  can  hardly  breathe  in  them? 
It  is  because  of  those  things,  my  friends.  If  there 
is  a  man  or  woman  here  who  has  his  property  rented 
for  anything  disreputable,  you  have  got  to  get  out 
of  it,  or  the  curse  of  God  will  fall  upon  you.  When 
you  do  a  thing  of  that  kind  you  are  sure  to  have 
trouble  in  5^our  families — your  son  or  your  daughter 
going  wrong."  At  this  point,  the  reporters  state, 
there  were  such  obvious  signs  of  dissent  or  dislike 
in  the  audience  that  Mr.  Moody  was  forced  to  notice 
them.  "I  dare  say,"  he  said,  "that  this  kind  of  a 
talk  throws  a  coldness  over  the  meeting,  but  you 
have  got  to  have  a  little  coldness  before  you  get 
warmed  up.  What  we  want  is  the  revival  of  right- 
eousness or  nothing." 

Proceeding,  he  said:  "There  is  a  class  of  church 
members  who  labor  under  the  delusion  that  if  they 
are  worldly  Christians  they  are  going  to  make  the 
most  of  both  worlds.     That  is  a  terrible  delusion." 

The  following  passage    is    almost    Emersonian: 

"Let  us  have  done  looking  at  obstacles;  is  there 
anything  too  hard  for  God?  Think  of  this  world. 
Think  of  the  great  mountains,  its  rivers,  its  inhab- 
itants. Yet  it  is  only  a  little  ball  thrown  from  the 
hand  of  Jehovah!" 

Speaking  of  respectable  people,  and  he  looked 
straight  into  the  faces  of  the  well-dressed  men  and 
women  in  front  of  him,  he  exclaimed:  "I  suppose 
if  you  had  gone  to  Sodom  a  week  before  its  destruc- 
tion, they  would  have  told  you  that  Lot  was  one  of 


248  EULOGY. 

the  most  influential  men  in  the  city — perhaps  had 
the  best  turnout,  and  owned  some  of  the  best  corner 
lots.  A  good  many  men,  no  doubt,  thought  that 
Lot  was  long-headed.  You  hear  a  man  called  long- 
headed and  the  best  business  man  in  Boston — and 
his  family  is  going  to  ruin.  He  is  long-headed,  isn't 
he?     The  Lord  pity  him.  " 

The  Boston  Transcript,  reviewing  the  work  of  the 
evangelist,  commented  as  follows:  "The  truth  is, 
Mr.  Moody  is  an  intensely  practical  man.  He 
preaches  against  sin — not  as  an  abstract  thing,  but 
as  something  concrete,  here,  on  the  spot.  He  treats 
Christianity,  not  as  a  collection  of  beautiful  aphor- 
isms, but  as  affording  a  standard  and  a  rule  of  every- 
day life.  Therefore,  it  is  that  Tremont  Temple 
hears  him  coldly." 

Though  Mr.  Moody  did  not  of  late  years  dwell 
upon  the  pangs  and  anguish  of  the  lost,  as  was  his 
wont  in  the  earlier  period  of  his  work,  when  he  was 
known  as  a  revivalist  rather  than  as  an  evangelist, 
yet  to  the  very  last  he  was  sturdily  orthodox.  A 
few  months  ago  he  was  in  Denver,  and  preached  as 
usual  to  crowded  houses.  Vehemently  defending 
the  church  dogmas,  he  said:  "Take  atonement: 
I'd  leave  my  Bible  right  here — wouldn't  take  it 
home  with  me  if  I  didn't  know  it  was  full  of  atone- 
ment. Take  justification:  Martin  Luther  found 
iustification  in  the  Bible,  and  he  roused  the  world. 
Take  the  prophecies  and  follow  them  out.  There 
are  two  hundred  prophecies  in  the  Bible,  every  one 
of  which  has  been  fulfilled  or  is  in  the  state  of  be- 
ing fulfilled  now.  There  has  never  been  anything 
done  in  this  world  that  hasn't  been  prophesied  in 
the  Bible." 


EULOGY.  249 

"Christ  will  take  the  burden  of  your  care  and  sor- 
row as  well  as  of  your  sin.  Christ  can  bear  them 
all.  A  good  many  people  think  he  takes  sin  alone. 
Did  you  ever  think  how  many  volumes  it  would  take 
to  hold  the  account  of  the  sorrows  of  the  people 
here?  A  horse  could  not  haul  the  record  away. 
Every  heart  here  has  a  sorrow,  and  many  a  man 
could  get  up  and  tell  you  a  story  to  make  you  cry. 

"The  fact  is  God  made  our  hearts  too  big  for  this 
world,  and  you  can  roll  the  whole  earth  into  them 
and  yet  they  are  empty.  This  world  is  too  small  to 
satisfy  our  hearts. " 

"One  day  a  young  lawyer  sought  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  found  it,  and  when  he  went  home  that 
night,  he  said:  'Wife,  I'm  going  to  serve  the  God 
of  heaven.  I'm  going  to  confess  Jesus  Christ,  and  I 
want  to  have  a  family  altar,  so  to-night  we'll  gather 
all  the  children  and  the  servants  into  the  dining- 
room  and  we'll  have  prayers  there.'  And  the  wife 
said:  'Well,  that's  all  right,  John,  but  you  are  not 
used  to  praying,  and  you  know  we  are  going  to  have 
some  lawyers  to  tea  to-night,  and  you  might  make 
a  mistake  before  them.  Hadn't  you  better  wait 
and  have  a  little  service  in  the  kitchen  after  the 
company's  gone?" 

"  'No,  wife,'  said  the  young  man,  'this  is  the  first 
time  I've  asked  Christ  into  my  house,  and  I  guess 
I'll  take  Him  into  the  best  room.' 

"And  he  did  it.  He  got  out  his  Bible  and  he  read 
it,  and  he  got  down  on  his  knees  and  prayed  like  a 
man,  and  I  tell  you  that  man  was  a  hero." 

Mr.  Moody  had  a  wonderful  faculty  for  getting 
money,  whether  it  was  a  simple  collection  to  meet 
current  expenses,  or  some  large   subscriptions    to 


250  EULOGY. 

carry  on  the  work  of  his  schools  at  Northfield  and 
Chicago.  In  the  early  part  of  1898  he  sent  notice 
that  his  schools  needed  money,  and  before  his  per- 
sonal appeals  were  all  distributed,  he  received  a  do- 
nation of  $100,000  from  a  single  person  whose  name 
was  withheld.  In  an  address  delivered  in  one  of 
the  educational  halls,  he  alluded  to  a  neighboring 
hill  as  "Temptation  Point."  When,  after  the  ad- 
dress, he  was  asked  why  he  called  the  hill  by  that 
name,  "Oh, "  he  replied,  "I  thought  some  one  might 
be  tempted  to  erect  a  chapel  for  us  on  that  point." 
The  hint  was  taken,  and  the  chapel  was  built. 

It  is  a  fact,  however,  and  cannot  be  denied,  that 
Mr.  Moody  sometimes  showed  a  partiality  for  cap- 
italists— when  they  responded  liberally  to  his  de- 
mands for  funds.  A  large  donation  seemed  to  offset 
a  multitude  of  imperfections  in  a  donor's  life  and 
character.  And  having  come  into  personal  contact 
with  some  of  the  great  millionaires,  and  having 
been  treated  with  genial  courtesy  by  them,  he  not 
only  hesitated  to  criticise  their  questionable  busi- 
ness methods,  but  has  been  known  to  go  out  of  his 
way  to  apologize  for  them  and  their  unsavory  trans- 
actions. Yet  this  statement  is  not  made  to  detract 
ungenerously  from  the  fame  of  the  great  preacher. 
It  simply  shows  that  he,  like  all  the  rest  of  us,  had 
a  great  deal  of  human  nature. 

Mr.  Moody  was  president  of  "The  Bible  Institute 
for  Home  and  Foreign  Missions  of  the  Chicago 
Evangelization  Society."  From  that  headquarters 
he  wrote  the  following  characterstic  fund-soliciting 
letter  to  a  friend  in  California.  This  letter  is  in  the 
possession  of  the  writer,  and  is  dated  September  15, 
1893,  the  year  of  the  Chicago  World's  Fair: 


EULOGY.  251 

"For  several  months  I  have  been  in  Chicago  con- 
ducting a  World's  Fair  evangelistic  campaign.  The 
work  has  had  God's  richest  blessing  and  has  gone 
far  beyond  my  expectation. 

"Some  of  the  most  prominent  ministers,  evangel- 
ists and  workers  in  the  world  are  assisting  me  in 
this  work.  During  the  time  remaining  in  Septem- 
ber and  October,  I  desire  to  push  the  battle  to  the 
gates.  I  want  to  make  a  personal  appeal  to  your 
young  people  to  assist  me. 

"The  cost  of  hiring  halls,  theatres,  advertising, 
etc.,  is  very  large,  and,  on  account  of  the  hard 
times,  it  is  difficult  to  get  money  from  the  ordinary 
sources.  Will  you  please  see  what  the  young  peo- 
ple in  your  organization  can  do  by  personal  collec- 
tion, or  personal  subscriptions,  and  send  to  us  as 
soon  as  possible? 

"The  need  is  great  and  the  opportunity  one  of  a 
lifetime — to  spread  the  gospel  to  the  corners  of  the 
earth. ' ' 

We  may  be  sure  this  appeal  was  not  in  vain.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  this  and  like  appeals  sent  to  other 
localities  were  responded  to  with  surprising  liberal- 
ity. 

Mr.  Moody  was  fond  of  a  joke,  but  did  not  always 
get  the  best  of  his  victim.  He  started  out  in  life  as 
a  drummer,  and  during  Lincoln's  administration 
was  traveling  through  southern  Illinois,  when,  as 
the  train  drew  up  to  a  station,  he  spoke  to  a  man 
passing  the  car  window,  and  asked  if  he  knew  that 
Lincoln  was  on  the  train.  The  man  showed  great 
interest  and  said:  "No;  is  he?"  "I  think  not, 
answered  Moody,  "I  only  asked  if  you  knew  that  he 
was."     The   man   said   nothing,  but   presently  rcr 


252  EULOGY. 

turned  and  remarked  that  the  little  town  had  been 
experiencing  considerable  excitement.  "What's 
the  matter?"  asked  Mr.  Moody.  "The  authorities 
wouldn't  let  some  folks  bury  a  woman,"  was  the 
reply.  "What  was  the  reason  for  refusing?"  Moody 
asked.     "She  wasn't  dead,"  was  the  laconic  reply. 

Talking  to  his  class  of  girls  one  day  against  the 
practice  of  card-playing,  theater-going  and  dancing, 
one  young  lady  asked  if  he  could  not  modify  his 
statements  and  permit  dancing  among  family 
friends,  as  the  exercise  tended  to  add  grace  to  one's 
figure.  Mr.  Moody  replied:  "My  dear  girl,  I 
would  a  thousand  times  rather  have  5''ou  get  more 
grace  in  your  heart  and  less  in  your  heels." 

Moody  recognized  the  power  of  the  press.  He 
once  remarked:  "I  believe  that  the  press  and  the 
pulpit  are  the  two  great  agencies  to  purify  the 
world."  But  he  had  no  exalted  opinion  of  certain 
metropolitan  papers  of  which  he  once  remarked: 
"I  don't  believe  that  the  newspapers  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  (if  they  had  any)  were  guilty  of  worse 
things  in  their  worst  days.  If  a  minister  bored  a 
hole  in  a  man's  head  who  had  been  reading  that 
stuff,  he  could  not  inject  a  serious  thought  of  eternal 
things." 

Undoubtedly  much  of  the  phenomenal  success 
attending  the  evangelistic  efforts  of  Mr.  Moody  was 
due  to  the  association  with  him  of  the  hymn-singing 
Ira  D.  Sankey.  The  newspapers  heralded  the  com- 
ing, not  of  Mr.  Moody,  the  preacher,  but  of  Moody 
and  Sankey,  the  evangelists,  and  Mr.  Sankey's  part 
in  the  service  was  an  important  part  of  the  program. 

Indeed,  the  music,  both  solo  and  congregational, 
was  to  many  persons  the  most  attractive  feature  of 


EULOGY.  253 

the  Moody  and  Sankey  meetings.  When  one's 
emotions  are  stirred  by  grand  old  hymns,  sung  with 
unction  by  an  immense  audience,  sweet  and  cher- 
ished memories  of  earlier  years  throng  the  mind, 
which  are  calculated  to  awaken  whatever  is  solemn 
and  reverent  in  one's  nature.  The  average  person 
is  then  peculiarly  receptive  to  religious  influences. 
— Wm.  H.  Knight,  in  Los  Angeles  Herald. 


These  post-graduates  of  theological  knowledge 
were  suspicious  and  jealous  of  this  man,  Christ, 
who,  without  the  commonly  accepted  mental  cul- 
ture, sprang  among  them  and  at  once  showed  them 
that  He  was  their  Master.  But  he  had  not  been 
trained  in  the  orthodox  fashion.  He  had  not  been 
through  the  regularly  prescribed  curriculum.  He 
had  no  collegiate  diploma.  And  to  this  day  men 
are  shy  of  anyone  who  dashes  into  any  line  of  work 
and  shows  himself  a  master,  unless  he  has  received 
that  training  that  the  world  contends  a  man  must 
have  to  gain  success. 

The  world  was  shy  of  Moody  at  first,  and  the  the- 
ologians especially,  but  he  deservedly  stood  in  the 
first  rank  of  Christ's  descendants,  and  the  world  has 
long  since  so  greeted  him. 

In  all  kinds  of  people  there  are  common,  generic 
attributes  that  produce  a  democratic  level,  and  on 
this  level  we  find  believers  and  unbelievers.  All  of 
both  classes  agree  as  to  Moody's  greatness  and  use- 
fulness. Collegians,  educators,  politicians,  the  com- 
mon people,  join  unanimously  in  proclaiming  him 
great.  What  made  him  great,  pre-eminent  among 
his  fellows? 

God  gave   Moody  the  necessary  physical  virility 


254  EULOGY. 

and  build  for  greatness.  He  was  given  wonderful 
mental  clearness,  large  "rationality,"  another  name 
for  common  sense.  Those  so  endowed  often  go  off 
at  a  tangent,  into  some  vagary,  and  become  and  are 
properly  termed  cranks.  Not  so  with  Moody.  No 
particular  school  or  church  could  claim  him,  yet  all 
claimed  him.     All  said  he  was  orthodox. 

He  had  marvelous  sagacity  and  tact.  He  read 
men  quickly  and  accurately.  He  was  a  blunt  man ; 
had  no  time  to  exchange  compliments.  His  will 
power  was  supreme.  Like  St.  Paul,  he  was  a  divine 
egotist.     Christ's  will  was  behind  him. 

His  moral  qualities  were  always  noted  for  their 
sincerity  and  genuineness.  He  was  a  teacher  and 
liver  of  righteousness.  He  was  a  learned  man, 
not  of  the  cloistered  class.  His  school  was  real  life, 
and  from  this  he  secured  the  deepest  form  of  edu- 
cation. Books  were  not  his  source  of  learning.  A 
great  man  precedes  the  great  book,  for  without 
the  great   man  there  can  be  no  great  book. 

One  book,  however,  he  knew  to  the  highest  de- 
gree of  perfection — the  Bible.  All  his  technical 
knowledge  was  drawn  from  this.  It  was  his  stock 
in  trade.  This  book,  with  human  life,  as  it  prac- 
tically exists,  he  knew  from  lid  to  lid.  He  had  a 
Shakespearean  power  of  knowing  and  telling  of 
men. 

Spiritually,  Moody  possessed  a  superlative  faith — 
glad,  free,  spontaneous.  He  was  never  haunted  by 
any  questionings  as  to  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible. 
Christ's  divinity,  the  reality  of  the  cross  or  the  fu- 
ture meeting  of  his  Master.  His  was  a  conquering 
faith.  His  heart  was  purity  itself,  and  consecrated 
beyond  man's  knowledge. 


EULOGY.  255 

Moody  with  Sankey  was  the  force  that  drove  back 
the  tide  of  agnosticism  which  some  years  ago  seemed 
to  be  about  to  overwhelm  England.  He  was  another 
Wesley,  Wakefield,  Luther.  And  all  this  great 
power  was  because  Christ  lived  in  Moody.  His 
belief  in  Christ  was  not  a  mere  intellectual,  casual 
belief.  He  really  lived  in  Christ  and  Christ  in  him. 
Moody  belonged  to  Christ.  He  was  captured,  mas- 
tered by  Him  and  was  his  bond  slave.  He  was 
eaten  up  with  ambition,  surpassing  that  of  Alex- 
ander, but  Moody's  ambition  was  the  saving  of  souls 
for  Christ. 

Moody  has  gone  to  the  unseen,  but  let  us  rejoice 
for  his  life  and  that  now  he  is  at  rest,  a  victor  of 
victors  in  life's  battle.  Be  not  discouraged;  the 
mold  for  great  men  is  never  broken,  and  God  will 
raise  up  another  such  leader  who  will  win  still 
greater  victories  for  the  cause  of  righteousness. — 
Rev.  J.  Kinsey  Smith,  Louisville,  Ky. 


So  pre-eminently  Christ-like  was  this  great  worker 
for  the  Lord  and  his  fellow-men,  that  out  of  many 
times  that  I  have  heard  him  speak  I  could  not  dis- 
cover a  trace  of  sectarianism.  He  was  first  of  all 
a  Christian,  then  a  Methodist.  He  was  essentially 
a  religious  teacher,  and  not  a  theological  exponent, 
and  measured  by  the  Christ  standard,  'By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them,'  he  did  a  work  great  and 
marvelous.  The  life  of  Moody  was  not  consecrated 
to  the  attacking  of  the  beliefs  of  others  or  the 
defending  of  his  own  personal  theology,  but  the 
inspiring  of  men  and  women  with  the  hope  of  a 
sweeter  and  better  life  here  and  hereafter. 

He   seemed  to  have  a  power  to  encourage  the 


256  EULOGY. 

despairing-  and  to  inspire  the  hopeless  ones.  He 
seemed  to  be  a  living  reservoir  of  faith,  hope  and 
inspiration,  which  he  could  impart  to  those  about 
him.  For  who  can  doubt  that  the  soul  filled  with 
hope  can  impart  hope  to  others,  or  that  the  brave- 
hearted  can  inspire  the  weak  or  down-hearted  ones? 

The  burden  of  this  great  man's  preaching  was  to 
make  men  and  women  good,  pure  and  Christ-like. 
To  show  them  the  loving  plan  of  God  in  human  life 
and  destiny,  which  they  all  had  the  power  to  defeat 
or  realize  by  their  own  lives  and  actions,,  the  key 
note  of  his  preaching  was  so  often  sounded  in  that 
favorite  text,  ' '  Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not  mocked, 
for  whatsoever  a  man  sows  that  shall  he  also  reap." 

Mr.  Moody  never  tried  to  frighten  men  into  the 
kingdom  of  God  but  he  rather  plead  with  them  and 
persuaded  them,  holding  before  them  a  vision  of 
the  loVe  of  God  in  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son, 
and  the  tenderness  of  Christ  towards  the  Magdalen, 
and  His  sympathy  for  the  weak  and  sinful.  He 
preached  powerfully  to  men's  hearts  and  consciences, 
but  seldom  to  their  fears  and  never  to  their  super- 
stitions. To  him,  there  was  no  mystery  in  religion 
save  the  mystery  there  is  in  the  transformation  of  a 
hard,  selfish,  sinful  soul  into  a  soul  gentle,  sweet, 
unselfish  and  Christ-like.  He  had  a  great  convic- 
tion that  his  Bible  and  his  Christ  could  transform 
and  save  the  world,  and  this  glowing  conviction 
especially  displayed  itself  when  he  went  to  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  and  earnestly  pleaded  with  him  to 
join  with  him  in  evangelistic  work.  "Other  men," 
said  he,  "can  carry  on  a  pastorate;  leave  your  pulpit 
and  join  with  me ;  together  we  will  sweep  the  coun- 
try for  Christ."     We  can  not  now  estimate  what 


EULOGY.  257 

would  have  been  accomplished  had  these  two  great 
apostles  of  the  religion  of  faith,  hope  and  love  joined 
together,  at  that  time,  in  such  a  powerful  itiner- 
ancy. 

The  religious  soul  feels  the  loss  of  this  great  soul 
and  vast  religious  power,  for  we  never  listened  to 
his  voice  without  feeling  that  the  Spirit  of  God  was 
back  of  it !  The  Christ  life  of  the  man  beamed  in 
his  eyes  and  throbbed  in  his  pleading  voice.  He 
did  not  pretend  to  be  a  scholar  in  the  higher  sense 
of  the  word.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people  and  the 
fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  was 
the  cornerstone  of  his  convictions.  He  once  declared 
that  "that  the  man  who  talks  from  a  deep  thought 
basis  may  get  the  twentieth  man,  but  I  am  after  the 
other  nineteenth  men." 

Perhaps  the  greatest  evangelistic  work  that  was 
ever  done  in  the  world's  history  was  when  Ira 
Sankey  sang  and  Mr.  Moody  preached  all  over  Eng- 
land, Scotland  and  this  country.  Thousands  of 
people  were  often  led  to  determine  upon  a  better  life 
in  a  single  city.  Many  a  poor,  burdened  soul — 
downcast  and  discouraged — heard  his  ringing  words, 
"Be  of  good  cheer,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee,"  felt 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  went  away  happy 
and  hopeful.  The  power  of  such  a  life  no  pen  can 
ever  describe  nor  imagination  put  into  language. 
Though  dead,  he  still  lives,  not  only  in  the  more 
Christ-like  thought  he  has  scattered  broadcast  and 
the  thousands  of  lives  he  has  started  heavenward, 
but  in  the  great  schools  he  founded  for  boys  and 
girls  at  Northfield,  Mass.  Prof.  Drummond  once 
wrote  that  "Scotland  would  not  be  to-day  what  it  is 
had  it  missed  the  year  of  Moody  and  Sankey !"     Such 


258  EULOGY. 

a  great  soul  has  left  this  life  to  be  hailed,  and  wel- 
comed into  God's  spiritual  kingdom. — Rev.  Von 
Herrlichs,  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

I  have  nothing  but  good  to  say  of  Mr.  Moody.  Of 
late  years  he  was  growing  rapidly  in  the  right 
direction.  The  tolerance  which  he  recently  evinced 
towards  the  higher  criticism  and  his  friendship  for 
men  like  Prof.  Henry  Drummond  and  George  Adam 
Smith,  showed  him  to  be  a  man  of  broader  sympa- 
thies than  one  would  suspect  from  his  earlier  rec- 
ord. His  devotion  to  education  and  his  recognition 
of  its  necessity  were  clear  indications  of  a  growth  in 
the  man  himself.  It  would  be  rash  in  any  man  to 
suspect  Mr.  Moody's  entire  sincerity,  and  as  an 
expounder  of  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  Scriptures  he 
had  few,  if  any,  equals.  As  an  evangelist,  he  had 
no  equal  whatever.  Mr.  Moody  had  the  almost 
unerring  instinct  of  a  great  commander  of  men.  I 
sat  one  night  during  Mr.  Moody's  hippodrome  cam- 
paign in  New  York  in  the  audience  at  the  after- 
meeting.  After  a  time  I  observed  him  beckoning 
in  my  direction  and  I  looked  about  to  see  whom  he 
had  in  mind.  I  concluded  after  a  moment  that  he 
was  beckoning  to  me,  so  I  stepped  up  to  him  and 
found  that  he  desired  that  I  should  speak  to  a  cer- 
tain flaxen-haired  German-looking  man  in  another 
part  of  the  audience.  I  did  as  he  requested,  and  it 
appeared  that  it  was  a  wise  bringing  together  of 
two  men,  for  the  man  seemed  to  me  to  want  to  hear 
precisely  what  I  had  to  say.  There  could  have 
been  no  explanation  of  the  choice  of  me  for  that 
service,  except  a  wise  intuition  on  the  part  of  the 
great  preacher  from  the  sight  of  the  two  faces  before 


EULOGY.  259 

him,  that  I  was  the  man  for  that  particular  part  of 
the  service.  I  have  heard  of  many  instances  of  this 
display  of  Mr.  Moody's  clear  intuition  and  his  ability 
to  adapt  particular  means  to  specific  ends.  His 
judgment  was  nearly  without  fault  in  such  cases. 
While  Mr.  Moody  was  of  a  theological  school  to 
which  I  do  not  belong,  and  while  I  often  felt  com- 
pelled to  criticise  some  of  his  methods,  I  have  always 
had  the  profoundest  respect  for  him  as  an  honest, 
earnest  and  remarkably  efficient  preacher  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  He  was  a  great  organizer  and 
would  have  made  as  equally  a  great  field  general  as 
a  leader  of  the  forces  of  the  church. — Rev.  Judson 
Titsworth,   Milwaukee,  Wis. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

A  notable  life  has  ended  with  the  departure  of 
Dwight  L.  Moody  to  the  other  world.  Few  men, 
no  matter  what  their  opportunities  or  resources, 
have  been  able  to  do  anything  like  a  fair  proportion 
of  the  good  for  their  fellow  creatures  that  has  been 
wrought  during  the  past  twenty-five  years  or  over 
by  the  dead  evangelist.  His  life  was  an  inspiration 
to  those  who  knew  him  to  do  good  for  their  fellows. 

His  religion  was  broad  enough  to  embrace  human- 
ity. His  daily  exertions  were  ever  in  the  direction 
of  promoting  the  happiness  of  his  fellow-man,  both 
here  and  hereafter. 

The  keynote  to  the  success  of  this  wonderful  man 
is  found  in  the  last  words  spoken  by  him.  They 
were :  "I  have  always  been  an  ambitious  man ;  not 
to  lay  up  wealth,  but  to  find  work  to  do."  If  that 
were  generally  the  animating  principle  of  men's 
conduct,  the  world  would  be  a  much  happier  place 
than  it  is.  The  character  of  the  work  which  Mr. 
Moody  was  ambitious  to  do  furnishes  the  secret  of 
his  wondrous  control  of  men.  Those  who  met  him 
knew  by  instinct  that  his  work  was  done  with  a  single 
thought  of  their  good.  He  gave  freely  of  his  won- 
drous powers,  and  when  death  presented  to  him  a 
notice  that  the  end  was  not  far  off  he  treated  the 

260 


■^ 

be 

o 

(S 

o 

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EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  263 

warning  with  a  smile  and  a  langh.  It  was  nothing 
he  said.  He  would  be  all  right  in  a  little  while, 
and  he  would  go  on  with  his  work.  It  was  his  work 
which  concerned  him,  and  he  refused  to  see  or  count 
on  anything  that  might  take  him  away  from  it. 

The  religion  of  this  man  was  happiness.  He  was 
a  living  demonstration  of  the  truth  that  he  who  lives 
rightly,  for  others  rather  than  for  himself,  is  most 
certain  of  happiness.  He  stirred  men's  souls  deeply, 
because  he  approached  them  through  all  the  best 
promptings  of  their  nature.  To  get  them  to  lead 
good  lives,  rather  than  to  be  faithful  in  the  profes- 
sion of  their  religion ;  to  bring  them  to  the  doing  of 
good  for  others  as  well  as  for  themselves,  represented 
the  end  and  aim  of  his  labors.  His  wondrous  suc- 
cess attests  at  once  the  innate  disposition  of  ordinary 
men  and  women  to  fulfill  their  duty  toward  God 
and  their  neighbors  and  the  splendid  powers,  splen- 
didly utilized,  with  which  he  was  endowed. 

The  world  needs  a  good  deal  more  of  the  religion 
of  the  deceased  gentleman  than  is  expounded  to  it. 
He  cared  very  little  for  religious  precept.  He  held 
a  good  story  above  a  Scripture  text  in  its  capacity 
for  appealing  to  the  understanding  and  conscience 
of  those  with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  The  outward 
symbols  of  religion  had  but  little  thought  from  him. 
He  taught  that  happiness  came  more  from  well- 
doing than  from  well-being  or  from  the  strict 
observance  of  religious  precept.  Religion  embraced 
with  him  happiness  here  and  hereafter.  Few  such 
men  appear  in  a  generation ;  but  they  leave  behind 
them  effects  and  influences  v>'hich  advanced  mater- 
ially the  ends  of  the  Christian  religion. — St.  Paul 
Globe. 

15 


264  EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

One  of  the  hard  features  of  a  soldier's  life  is  the 
fact  that  his  heart  must  be  like  adamant  toward 
foes,  no  matter  how  innocent,  and  even  sometimes 
toward  his  friends.  He  rushes  like  a  bloodthirsty- 
field  upon  men  against  whom  he  has  not  the  slight- 
est feeling  of  personal  animosity,  and  for  whom 
tmder  other  circumstances,  he  would  gladly  do  any- 
kindly  service  in  his  power.  He  must  leave  a 
brother  to  bleed  to  death,  or  perhaps  must  charge 
over  him,  trampling  out  his  life.  He  must  relent- 
lessly shoot  down  the  comrade  of  a  score  of  battles 
because  he  fails  in  the  pinch  or  proves  false  in  a 
crisis.  Call  it  cruel  and  wicked  if  you  will,  yet  it  is 
the  way  that  our  great  world  has  gone  struggling 
upward  for  6,000  years  and  more;  and  we  to-day 
enjoy  so  much  as  we  have  of  the  protection  of  just 
laws,  keep  our  holiday  festivities  in  safety  and  wor- 
ship God  as  our  conscience  bids  us  in  peace,  because 
men  have  done  these  things  in  the  years  of  the 
past. 

The  "knight  of  the  better  era" — the  man  who 
fights  with  the  pen  rather  than  with  the  sword,  and 
sends  words  and  ideas  instead  of  bullets  and  cannon 
ball  crashing  against  his  fellow-men,  has  often  a  lot 
no  less  hard  than  that  of  the  soldier  of  the  sword. 
Often  must  he  speak  words  that  seem  harsh  and  ter- 
rible because  he  must  be  "as  harsh  as  truth." 
Often  must  his  face  be  like  a  flint  toward  those 
whom  he  would  gladly  recognize  as  friends  because 
he  must  be  "as  uncompromising  as  justice." 
Kind,  tender-hearted  people  are  wounded  as  he 
goes  charging  by  or  over  them  and  never  perhaps 
recognize  him  in  any  other  light  than  that  in  which 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  265 

he  momentarily  appears  to  their  lacerated  sensibil- 
ities. 

Dwight  L.  Moody,  the  great  American  evangelist, 
died  on  Friday  last.  We  have  criticised  him  in 
these  columns — sometimes  with  a  terrible  severity. 

We  are  filled  with  regret  to-day,  not  that  we  crit- 
icised him,  but  that  it  was  necessary  to  do  so,  and 
we  regret  it  now  not  a  whit  more  than  when  we 
wrote  the  most  severe  of  the  sentences.  He  was  a 
great  man,  and,  measured  by  ordinary  or  even  by 
extraordinary  standards,  he  was  a  good  man.  Along 
certain  lines  of  service  for  his  fellow-men,  he  wrought 
magnificently.  But  when  a  great  door  of  opportu- 
nity for  a  service  broader  and  more  beneficent  than 
any  that  he  had  ever  rendered,  opened  before  him, 
he  failed  of  the  stature  of  manhood  necessary  to 
enter.  Many  great  duties  came  to  his  life  and  he 
performed  them  bravely.  But  when  a  supreme 
duty  appeared,  when  it  was  within  his  power  to 
have  spoken  the  word  that  would  have  meant  a 
mighty  moral  uplift  for  the  national  life  of  the 
whole  American  people ;  when,  as  we  believe,  the 
call  came  to  him  to  lead  forward  for  the  civic  regen- 
eration of  the  race,  he  flinched,  lacked  courage,  and 
turned  his  back  upon  the  duty. 

We  called  attention  to  the  fault,  and,  so  long  as 
there  was  hope  that  a  severe  remedy  might  bring  a 
cure,  we  spoke  with  the  fierceness  and  ruthlessness 
demanded  by  the  exigency.  Now  that  the  life  with 
all  its  successes  and,  what  seems  to  us  its  one  great 
failure,  is  closed,  we  record  the  facts  only  that  wis- 
dom may  be  justified,  and  we  have  not  in  our  hearts 
nor  on  our  pen  an  unkind  word  concerning  him. 
Let  the  man  who  never  failed,  let  the  man  in  whose 


266  EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

life  there  never  was  a  fault,  undertake  the  task  of 
criticism.     Until  such  a  critic  is  found  we  are  silent. 

Mr.  Moody,  as  we  believe,  paid  a  terrible  penalty 
for  his  mistake.  A  trumpet  that  has  never  sounded 
anything  but  advance  will  never  sound  just  the  same 
again  after  it  has  once  blown  retreat,  and  from  the 
hour  that  Mr.  Moody  failed  to  grasp  the  opportunity 
that  would  have  made  him  the  greatest  Christian 
citizen  of  the  world,  and,  instead  of  leading  forward 
the  good  men  of  the  nation,  became  content  to  fol- 
low the  bad  almost  as  blindly  as  their  worst  follow- 
ers— from  that  hour  his  power  dwindled,  until  in 
these  latter  days  he  has  gone  up  and  down  the 
country  great  only  as  a  reminiscence.  Mr.  Moody's 
meetings  of  late  have  not  lacked  numbers,  have  not 
lacked  a  certain  sort  of  enthusiasm,  but  they  have 
lacked  POWER;  and  the  loss  of  that  power  that  he 
used  to  wield  was  a  penalty  awful  to  contemplate. 

But  he  died  with  beautiful  words  upon  his  lips. 
"I  have  always  been  an  ambitious  man,"  the  papers 
tell  us  he  said,  "not  ambitious  to  lay  up  wealth, 
but  to  find  work  to  do. ' ' 

It  was  a  great  thing  to  have  had  such  an  impulse 
in  life,  a  great  thing  even  if  it  was  not  always  fully 
followed.  It  was  grand  to  march  through  the  world 
to  that  tune,  even  if  he  sometimes  did  break  step. 
Our  faces  have  been  stern  against  him.  He  failed 
us  when  the  need  was  sore.  But  in  the  marchings 
of  the  future  and  around  the  bivouacs  of  nights  to 
come,  we  will  think  of  him  kindly  and  speak  of  him 
gently.  And  some  day  mayhap  when  we  have  all 
been  put  upon  with  "the  powers  of  an  endless  life," 
we  shall  serve  again  shoulder  to  shoulder. — New 
Voice,  Chicago. 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  267 

Dwight  L.  Moody,  who  passed  from  life  yester- 
day, was  a  remarkable  person  and  a  man  of  many 
friends.  Much  of  his  life  was  so  intensely  public  in 
its  character,  and  so  devoted  to  the  public's  good, 
that  a  more  than  passing  notice  is  required  as  he 
moves  from  the  stage  of  life's  activities  to  the 
shades  of  a  perpetual  rest. 

It  is  difficult  to  criticise  Mr.  Moody  with  justness, 
when  one  is  not  in  entire  sympathy  with  the 
methods  he  employed,  with  some  of  the  teachings 
he  encouraged  and  the  customs  he  inaugurated. 
The  first  thing,  however,  to  do  is  to  give  Mr.  Moody 
credit  for  sincerity,  for  generosity,  for  conscientious 
devotion  to  what  he  believed.  No  one  doubts  his 
Christianity ;  no  one  would  intimate  that  he  failed  of 
doing  a  vast  amount  of  good  in  the  past  quarter  of 
a  century  and  in  many  parts  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Moody  is  understood  to  have  been  a  man  who 
could  not,  and  who  would  not,  work  save  as  an 
independent.  The  recognized  avenues  of  church 
effort,  the  instituted  agencies  already  at  hand, 
meant  little  to  him,  save  as  he  could  make  use  of 
them  for  the  introduction  of  what  was  striking  and 
novel  in  his  own  plan  of  work.  He  was  a  great 
preacher  because  he  preached  to  the  masses.  He 
cut  loose  from  tradition,  from  established  usages, 
and  as  a  result  these  have  in  a  measure  been  less 
available  than  formerly.  He  preached  a  simple, 
easily  understood  gospel.  He  made  the  Christ  to 
seem  real,  and  Christianity  to  appeal  as  something 
to  be  not  only  desired,  but  essential,  absolutely 
necessary;  and  thousands  were  led  through  the 
personality  of  the  man  and  the  earnestness  of  his 
appeals  to  reform  their  lives. 


268  EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

No  doubt  many  who  started  under  the  impulses 
born  of  his  dominating  potential  personality  fell  out 
by  the  way  when  that  influence  had  passed;  but 
that  has  been  demonstrated  in  every  reformatory 
work  since  the  ancient  times  when  first  "A  sower 
went  forth  to  sow. ' ' 

Mr.  Moody's  work  paved  the  way,  in  no  small 
measure,  and  we  believe  in  this  country  much  more 
so  than  in  Great  Britain,  where  he  also  labored,  for 
the  onward  sweep  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
Society's  movement,  and  for  the  introduction  of  that 
era  of  a  better  feeling  of  toleranjce  between  churches 
of  different  denominations  that  has  grown  and  de- 
veloped more  freely  during  the  past  twenty  years 
than  ever  before. 

The  theologian  who  delights  in  theology,  the 
schoolman  who  has  always  a  use  for  the  graces 
taught  in  the  schools,  the  musician  who  finds  some- 
thing in  music  more  than  rhythm  and  jingle,  the 
poet  who  notes  the  finer  meaning  and  reads  between 
the  lines, — to  these  Mr.  Moody's  personality  does 
not  appeal  strongly.  They  respect  his  Christian 
purpose,  his  untiring  zeal,  his  unfaltering  hope; 
they  rejoice  in  all  the  good  he  has  done.  But  they 
work  differently.  They  ma}'-  do  Christ's  work  for 
Christ's  sake,  as  he  did  it,  but  not  in  his  way. 

In  the  long  run,  it  is  conceded  that  the  churches, 
not  the  individuals,  win.  Spasmodic,  individual 
efforts  outside  of  them  do  not  long  survive  the  alert 
personality  that  founded  them,  and  when  a  man  is 
dead  who  shall  take  up  the  man's  work?  The 
church  never  dies  and  in  her  mission  and  her  scope 
there  is  room  for  every  form  of  service,  opportunity 
for  reforms  made  necessary  by  changing  customs  in 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  269 

civilization,  in  tastes,  in  natural  prejudices,  but 
never  in  morals,  in  sacred  teachings  or  in  the  great 
ends  to  be  reached, — the  uplifting  of  humanity  and 
the  salvation  of  the  race. — Providence  Telegfram. 


The  fear  felt  that  the  work,  of  D.  L.  Moody,  the 
evangelist,  was  ended  when  the  news  came  of  his 
break-down  in  Kansas  City,  has  been  confirmed. 
Brought  back  to  his  birthplace  at  Northfield,  his 
physicians  held  out  hopes  of  his  rallying,  but  med- 
ical attention  and  the  loving  care  bestowed  on  him 
by  his  family  have  counted  for  nothing  as  against 
the  results  of  years  of  arduous,  unsparing  work. 
The  pressure  under  which  he  had  labored  for  so 
long  had  its  inevitable  effect  in  undermining  his 
constitution,  and  although  the  news  of  his  death  yes- 
terday came  with  a  shock  of  suddenness,  it  was  not 
unexpected.  To  those  who  knew  the  man  in  his 
numberless  activities,  the  wonder  is  that  he  was 
spared  for  so  many  years  of  life. 

Mr.  Moody  was  a  great  evangelist,  and  he  did  a 
great  work.  An  unordained  and  essentially  popu- 
lar preacher,  who  felt  that  his  commission  to  win 
souls  was  in  his  love  for  Christ  and  his  desire  to 
serve  Him — he  reached  thousands  who  were  not. 
likely  to  come  under  the  influence  of  any  church, 
and  working  in  and  through  churches  he  appealed 
to  thousands  of  others,  whose  belief  in  Christianity 
he  quickened  from  a  dull  acceptance  of  doctrine 
into  a  living  power.  Earnest  in  his  own  convic- 
tions, and  gifted  with  a  remarkable  talent  for  enlist- 
ing the  interest  and  sympathy  of  his  hearers,  he  was 
a  speaker  of  unusual  effectiveness.  Direct  and  sim- 
ple in  his  utterances,  not  always  grammatical,  fond 


270  EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

of  anecdote  and  homely  illustration,  emotional, 
sometimes  to  an  extreme — such  was  Dwight  L. 
Moody  as  the  leader  of  countless  public  meetings. 
He  filled  churches  and  audience  rooms  because  the 
people  believed  he  had  a  message  to  deliver ;  as  for 
himself  he  believed  that  that  message  was  of  tre- 
mendous consequence.  His  methods  have  been 
criticised,  but,  certainly,  he  was  not  open  to  the 
charge  of  being  insincere.  His  whole  life  was  given 
to  doing  what  he  felt  to  be  his  highest  duty.  To 
this  task  he  brought  native  ability,  and  a  constantly 
increasing  knowledge  of  the  ways  to  make  that 
ability  count  for  the  most. 

Mr.  Moody's  cornerstone  was  the  Bible.  A  de- 
voted student  of  that  book,  he  stood  for  its  accept- 
ance in  its  entirety.  An  unlettered  man,  as  com- 
pared to  the  present  day  exponents  of  the  "higher 
criticism,"  he  did  not  hesitate  to  preach  his  faith, 
and  to  live  it.  A  man  of  the  people,  he  understood 
how  to  appeal  to  the  people;  he  touched  human  life 
at  many  points,  in  his  career,  and  from  his  own  ex- 
periences he  drew  many  a  striking  lesson.  No 
respecter  of  persons,  or  seeker  after  favor,  his 
independent  attitude  attracted  rather  than  repelled, 
and  he  had  a  marked  faculty  for  enlisting  in  his 
enterprises  those  who,  he  thought,  would  help  him 
in  the  greatest  measure.  He  welcomed  co-workers. 
Men  of  prominence  in  this  country  and  from  abroad 
were  asked  by  him  to  address  his  Northfield  meet- 
ings, and  felt  honored  in  being  asked.  For  young 
men  and  for  young  women  he  had  a  special  interest, 
and  on  them  he  had  a  special  influence.  He  attracted 
them,  and  held  them.  His  college  conferences,  in 
Northfield,  that  beautiful  Massachusetts  town,  have 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  271 

been  positive  sources  of  inspiration.  From  the 
"Auditorium"  or  "Round  Top"  meetings  many 
have  gone,  with  strength  and  courage,  to  missionary 
fields,  or  to  engage  in  Christian  work  in  their  home 
communities.  And  of  the  hundreds  of  attendants 
on  these  conferences,  there  can  surely  be  but  few, 
who  have  not  been  impressed  with  Mr.  Moody's 
personality,  and  helped  by  contact  with  him. 

Mr.  Moody  was  a  man  of  essentially  practical 
aims.  He  believed  that  he  could  do  things,  and  he 
had  remarkable  success  in  doing  them.  His  School 
for  Boys  at  Mount  Hermon  and  his  School  for  Girls 
at  Northfield  are  evidences  of  what  his  persistent 
efforts  have  accomplished;  his  other  enterprises 
apart  from  his  evangelistic  work  included  Bible  and 
normal  training  schools  and  conferences  for  Chris- 
tian workers  and  for  students.  Up  to  the  time  that 
he  was  stricken,  a  few  weeks  since,  he  continued 
his  widely  extended  speaking  tours.  A  whitening 
beard  was  the  only  apparent  mark  of  his  advancing 
years.  At  his  last  meetings  in  Kansas  City  he 
appeared  at  his  best.  His  addresses  were  full  of 
power,  and  as  effective  as  ever  in  making  converts. 

Mr.    Moody  did  not  die    an  old  man.      Born  in 

Northfield  in   1837,  it  was  only  two  years  ago  that 

he   passed  his  sixty-first  birthday.      His  father,  a 

stone  mason  and  farmer,  died  when  Mr.  Moody  was 

a  child.     The  mother  was  left  in  poverty,  and  the 

eldest  son  ran  away.     But  Mrs.  Moody  was  a  woman 

of  pluck.     She  kept  the  rest  of  her  family  together 

and  provided  for  their  support.      When  seventeen 

years  old  Dwight  L.  Moody  went  to  Boston  to  earn 

his  living.       He  found  employment  in  an    uncle's 

shoe  shop,  and  early  became  interested  in  church 
16 


272  EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

work.  But  it  is  related  that  his  associates  thought 
him  unlikely  ever  to  become  "a  Christian  of  clear 
and  decided  views  of  gospel  truth ;  still  less  to  fill 
any  extended  sphere  of  public  usefulness." 

In  1856,  when  he  was  nineteen,  he  went  to  Chi- 
cago, and  obtained  a  place  in  a  shoe  store.  He 
joined  a  church  and  at  once  rented  four  pews  for 
young  men  whom  he  intended  to  bring  in.  He 
offered  to  teach  in  a  mission  school,  and  was  told 
that  his  services  would  be  welcome,  if  he  would 
bring  his  own  pupils.  The  next  Sunday  he  walked 
in  at  the  head  of  eighteen  ragged  urchins  whom  he 
had  found  in  the  streets.  He  frequented  the 
wharves,  trying  to  convert  sailors,  and  he  did  mis- 
sionary work  in  the  saloons.  His  great  Sunday- 
school  was  started  in  a  room  that  had  been  used  for 
a  saloon.  He  soon  had  a  thousand  pupils;  the 
saloon  building  had  been  found  to  be  too  small,  and 
the  sessions  were  held  in  a  hall,  Mr.  Moody  being 
janitor  as  well  as  instructor.  All  this  time  the 
young  man  kept  up  his  business,  which  had  come  to 
be  that  of  a  traveling  salesman.  In  i860,  when 
twenty-three  years  old,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  take 
up  evangelizing  work  exclusively. 

During  the  civil  war  Mr.  Moody  was  employed  by 
the  Christian  commission,  and  later  by  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  Chicago,  as  a  lay 
missionary.  When  he  first  gave  up  his  regular 
business  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  keep  his  ex- 
penses as  low  as  possible;  he  slept  on  a  bench  in 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  rooms,  and  ate  the  plainest  food. 
Such  success  attended  his  work  with  the  soldiers 
and  in  Chicago  that  a  church  for  his  Chicago  con- 
verts was  built,  and  he  became  its  unordained  pas- 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  273 

tor.  In  1873  Mr,  Moody  and  Mr.  Sankey,  the 
singer  (with  whose  name  that  of  the  evangelist  is 
inseparably  associated),  decided  to  make  a  trip  to 
Great  Britain  on  the  invitation  of  two  friends. 
When  they  arrived  they  found  that  their  friends 
were  dead;  the  evangelist  and  the  singer  were  not 
known,  and,  at  their  first  meeting,  which  was  held 
at  York,  four  persons  were  present.  Mr.  Moody 
afterwards  said  that  it  was  one  of  the  best  meetings 
that  he  and  Mr.  Sankey  ever  held. 

The  tour  was  a  wonderful  success.  The  meetings 
increased  in  attendance  and  interest;  at  Glasgow 
30,000  people  gathered  in  the  open  air  to  try  to  hear 
the  evangelist,  and  the  London  meetings  lasted 
four  months,  the  total  attendance  being  estimated 
at  2,500,000  people.  On  his  return  to  the  United 
States  a  series  of  great  meetings  were  held  in  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Boston  and  Mr.  Moody's  home 
city,  Chicago.  During  his  absence  his  church, 
which  was  burned  in  187 1,  had  been  rebuilt.  He 
took  up  his  work  there  again,  making  evangelistic 
trips  to  different  parts  of  the  country  and  going 
abroad  a  second  time.  He  finally  left  Chicago  for 
Northfield,  where  a  house  was  given  him  by  friends, 
and  in  Northfield  he  continued  to  make  his  home 
till  his  death.  Of  late  years  he  had  been  occupied 
more  exclusively  in  the  development  and  conduct 
of  his  successful  schools,  and  in  the  direction  of  his 
conferences,  but  he  spoke  in  various  places  from 
time  to  time ;  his  activity  was  incessant. 

Mr.  Moody's  tastes  were  simple;  he  lived  in  his 
work.  He  never  received  a  salary,  and  he  did  not 
ask  contributions  for  himself.  His  reputation  as  a 
speaker  ensured  a  wide  sale  for  his  sermons  and 


274  EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

other  writings,  in  book  form.  Mr.  Moody  married 
a  Miss  Revell,  and  she  and  two  sons  and  a  daughter 
survive  him. 

Dwight  L.  Moody  put  his  great  forces  into  the 
work  of  redemption.  He  wanted  to  help  men ;  to 
save  them.  He  wanted  to  increase  the  opportu- 
nities for  Christian  education,  and  he  wanted  to 
inspire  others  with  the  desire  to  aid  in  the  spread 
of  Christianity.  How  he  accomplished  his  ambi- 
tions his  life  story  shows. 

What  he  put  his  hand  to  he  did  with  his  might ; 
the  results  of  his  work  live  after  his  death.  The 
summons  that  his  career  was  at  an  end  came  to  him 
undoubtedly  as  he  would  have  wished — when  he 
was  in  active  service. — Hartford   (Conn.)    Courant. 


About  the  only  criticism  of  Mr.  Moody  that  has 
appeared  in  print  is  that  of  Justin  D.  Fulton,  D.  D., 
in  his  book  on  the  Life  of  Charles  H.  Spurgeon,  the 
great  English  preacher.     He  says: 

"Moodyism  is  a  growth  rather  than  a  policy.  It 
is  the  name  of  a  movement  rather  than  an  organiz- 
ation. It  is  an  attempt  to  evangelize  the  millions 
without  instructing  them  in  regard  to  church  obli- 
gations, and  the  necessity  of  observing  the  ordi- 
nances Christ  instituted.  At  this  point  Moodyism 
allies  itself  with  Romanism,  and  claims  the  right  to 
take  away  from  the  words  of  the  prophecy  of  this 
book  without  regard  to  the  utterance,  'God  shall 
take  away  his  part  from  the  tree  of  life  and  out  of 
the  holy  city,  which  are  written  in  this  book. ' 

"To  prosecute  this  work  as  an  evangelist,  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  buildings  have  been 
constructed,  with  reading-rooms  and  social  parlors, 
and  in  some  instances  billiard  rooms,  where  games 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  275 

are  indulged  in,  and  almost  anything  calculated  to 
attract,  is  permitted,  to  be  followed  by  consecrated 
efforts  to  woo  and  win. 

"Moodyism,  with  its  unsectarian  'Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations,  Christian  Endeavor  Socie- 
ties,' thousands  of  lay  evangelists  and  its  mission- 
aries, in  all  parts  of  the  world,  becomes  withoiit  ap- 
pointment and  without  control,  either  an  extraordi- 
nary help  or  a  tremendous  peril  to  the  church  life 
of  the  world.  As  at  present  organized  it  is  almost 
as  much  outside  the  church  life  of  Christianity  as  is 
Romanism.  Is  it  in  an  alliance  with  Romanism  in 
fact  if  not  in  theory?  Moody  adopts  gospel  methods, 
as  does  not  Romanism ;  depends  on  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  converting  power,  while  Romanism  trusts  to 
baptismal  regeneration,  sacraments,  priestly  absolu- 
tion, and  purgatorial  fire  for  salvation.  But  Moody- 
ism,  working  with  the  rich,  the  cultured,  and  the 
influential,  and  the  Salvation  Army  with  the  very 
poor,  alike  ignoring  the  ordinances  Christ  instituted, 
deserve  reproof  for  not  obeying  Christ.  The  believ- 
ing in  Christ  thoy  should  do,  and  not  leave  the  other 
undone. 

"Mr.  Moody  believes  in  immersion  as  New  Testa- 
ment baptism,  and,  it  is  said,  was  immersed  in  the 
Jordan,  and  yet  by  influence  and  example  sanctions 
infant  baptism,  the  tap-root  of  baptismal  regenera- 
tion on  which  Romanists  rest  for  salvation.  Thou- 
sands and  millions  imitate  him.  Is  it  safe  to  do  so? 
Pentecost  in  India  is  an  evangelist  for  Moodyism. 

"Shall  Christians  forget  that  the  necessities  of  the 
times  call  loudly  to  Christians  to  bestir  themselves 
and  take  the  place  and  hold  it  which  does  not  belong 
to  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  or  any  other 


276  EDITORIAL  COMMENT. 

unsectarian  movement.  A  barrel  without  hoops  is 
as  valuable  as  are  Christians  unharnessed  or  un- 
trained in  church  life.  Shall  the  churches  step  to 
the  front  and  take  what  belongs  to  them?  Shall 
they  let  the  light  shine  which  Christ  has  entrusted 
to  their  keeping,  remembering  'that  the  Lord's 
hand  is  not  shortened,  that  he  cannot  save,  nor  his 
ear  heavy  that  he  cannot  hear?'  We  are  not  to 
pray  that  Mood5asm  may  do  less,  but  that  the 
churches  as  Christ  organized  them  may  do  more 
than  ever  before,  and  measure  up  to  the  untold  re- 
sponsibilities which  are  committed  to  their  keeping. 
Moodyism,  without  asserting  it  and,  perhaps,  with- 
out designing  it,  is  as  antagonistic  to  the  system  of 
faith  that  makes  belief  and  baptism  the  source  of 
its  power  and  the  feature  of  its  life,  as  is  Romanism. 

"Recently  it  has  come  out  that  Mr.  Moody  gave 
money  to  build  a  Roman  Catholic  house  of  worship 
in  Northfield.  Some  knew  this  years  ago,  and  there 
were  those  who  went  and  saw  the  evangelist  in  his 
home,  and  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  turn  his 
attention  to  the  need  of  telling  the  unvarnished 
truth  concerning  Romanism.  In  vain.  No  distinc- 
tive anti-Romanist  has  been  welcome  to  Northfield. 
It  is  because  Moodyism  averages  the  public  Christ- 
ian sentiment  of  the  hour,  that  truth-telling  is  not 
in  order. 

"There  is  need  of  Mr.  Moody's  enthusiasm  and 
generalship  in  this  work  for  Romanists.  Let  him 
realize  their  ruin  without  Christ,  and  it  would  stir 
him.  It  IS  not  the  evangelist  alone  that  is  needed, 
but  all  that  he  can  influence,  and  all  that  influences 
him  Let  prayer  arise  that  the  Holy  Spirit  will 
cause  him  and  others   to  realize  the  value  of  the 


EDITORIAL  COMMENT.  277 

souls  of  Romanists,  and  give  them  no  rest  until  the 
outpouring  shall  come  upon  undone  Roman  Catho- 
lics, causing  them  to  cry  out,  'Men  and  brethren, 
what  must  we  do  to  be  saved?'  God  can  do  this  in 
answer  to  prayer,  and  can  cause  the  great  evangelist 
to  lead  in  the  work  of  rescuing  the  lost  from  the 
night  of  their  thraldom  and  bring  them  to  the  light 
of  an  eternal  day." 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


MEMORIAL. 


An  eloquent  and  touching  sermon  was  delivered 
by  Rev.  Henry  H.  Stebbins,  at  Central  Church, 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  as  a  memorial  to  D  wight  L, 
Moody,  December  31,  1899.  The  songs  and  psalms 
were  the  same  as  those  used  at  the  evangelist's 
funeral,  and  the  entire  service  was  a  memorial  to  him 
who  with  his  last  breath  said:  "Is  this  dying? 
Then  death  is  bliss!"     Dr.  Stebbins  said: 

"I  take  for  my  text  this  morning  the  first  words 
that  occurred  to  me,  when  I  learned  that  Dwight  L. 
Moody  had  gone  hence  to  be  here  no  more.  His 
death,  like  a  magnet,  has  attracted  numerous  ex- 
pressions of  Scripture  singularly  pertinent  to  the 
man  whose  departure  we  mourn. 

"We  associate  with  him  words  like  these:  'Stead- 
fast, unmovable,  always  abounding  in  the  work  of 
the  Lord.'  He  'went  about  doing  good.'  'He  had 
compassion  on  the  multitude.'  'A  friend  of  sin- 
ners.' 'I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth, '  'I 
know  whom  I  have  believed. '  '  By  the  grace  of  God 
I  am  what  I  am.'  'Though  I  walk  through  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil.  * 

"They  tell  us  that  among  the  floral  designs  at 
Mr.  Moody's  funeral  was  that  of  an  open  Bible  on 
the  one  side  of  which  was  'Victory,   I  Corinthians 

278 


Copyright,  1900,  by  Rubt.  O.  Law. 

MO(JDY    BIBLE    INSTITUTE,  CHICAGO. 

Hundreds  of  Bible  students  assemble  here  daily  for  the  purpose  of  gleaning  scriptural 

knowledge. 


X 


MEMORIAL.  281 

15:55-57,'  and  on  the  other  side:  'II  Timothy, 
4:7-8.' 

"So  we  might  go  on,  enumerating  passages  of 
Scripture  suggested  by  Mr.  Moody's  death  because 
Mr.  Moody's  life  was  in  such  close  touch  with  so 
much  of  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  God's  Word. 
And  this  brings  me  at  once  to  what  appeals  to  me 
as  one  of  the  four  cardinal  features  of  Mr.  Moody's 
phenomenal  life — his  attachment  to  God's  Word. 
Right  here  the  conviction  smites  me  of  how  he  must 
have  reveled  in  the  119th  Psalm,  which  plays  so 
many  variations  on  the  theme  of  God's  Word. 

"  'Thy  word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet  and  a  light 
unto  my  path.  My  heart  standeth  in  awe  of  Thy 
word. ' 

"  'I  rejoice  at  Thy  word  as  one  that  findeth  great 
spoil.  Thy  word  is  very  pure ;  therefore  Thy  ser- 
vant loveth  it.  Oh,  how  love  I  Thy  law ;  it  is  my 
meditation  all  the  day.  How  sweet  are  Thy  words 
unto  my  taste !  yea,  sweeter  than  honey  to  my  mouth. ' 

"Mr.  Moody's  creed  about  the  Bible  was  that  all 
Scripture  was  given  by  inspiration  of  God  and  is 
profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  instruction 
in  righteousness.  And  he  believed  that  holy  men 
of  God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  held  fast  the  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints. 

"In  the  handling  of  the  Bible — and  how  intelli- 
gently, skilfully,  reverently  and  affectionately  he 
handled  it — in  handling  the  Bible  he  was  a  literalist 
rather  than  a  believer  in  the  allegory  and  fable 
theories  of  Scripture.  He  believed  that  the  whale 
swallowed  Jonah;  that  the  serpent  tempted  the 
woman.     He  believed  the  story  of  the  deluge.     He 

16 


282  MEMORIAL. 

believed  that  the  water  was  turned  into  wine.  And 
he  believed  so,  not  because  he  was  artificial  in  his 
understanding  of  the  Bible,  nor  because  he  was  not 
learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  schools.  Indeed 
some  of  the  most  learned  men  kept  company  with 
Mr.  Moody  as  a  literalist.  I  recall  one,  an  eminent 
scholar,  who  was  on  the  American  committee  of 
revisers  of  the  Bible,  and  who  to  the  day  of  his 
death  believed  that  the  world  was  created  in  six 
days  of  twenty-four  hours  each.  Mr.  Moody's  atti- 
tude toward  the  Bible  is  well  illustrated  in  the  fol- 
lowing bit  of  experience  he  related:  'A  man  came 
to  me  with  a  difficult  passage  in  the  Bible  the  other 
day  and  said:  "Mr.  Moody,  what  do  you  do  with 
that?"  '  I  do  not  do  anything  with  it. '  "  How  do  you 
understand  it?"  'I  do  not  understand  it. '  "How  do 
you  explain  it?"  'I  do  not  explain  it. '  "What  do 
you  do  with  it?"  'I  do  not  do  anything.'  "You  do 
not  believe  it,  do  you?"  'Oh,  yes,  I  believe  it. 
'There  are  lots  of  things  I  do  not  understand,  but 
I  believe  them.  I  do  not  know  anything  about 
higher  mathematics,  but  I  believe  in  them.  I  do 
not  understand  astronomy,  but  I  believe  in  astron- 
omy. Can  you  tell  me  why  the  same  kind  of  food 
turns  into  flesh,  fish,  hair,  feathers,  hoofs,  finger- 
nails, according  as  it  is  eaten  by  one  animal  or 
another?  A  man  told  me  a  while  ago  he  could  not 
believe  a  thing  he  had  never  seen.  I  said:  "Man, 
did  you  ever  see  your  brain?  Did  you  ever  notice 
that  the  things  men  cavil  most  about  are  the  very 
things  on  which  Christ  has  set  His  seal?" 

"Doubtless  one  secret  of  Mr.  Moody's  power  as  a 
preacher  was  his  unshaken  faith  in  God's  word. 
His  motto  seemed  to  be:  'I  believe,  and  therefore  I 


MEMORIAL.  283 

speak.'  His  'Thus  saith  the  Lord'  was  freighted 
with  such  intense,  absorbing  conviction,  that  the 
people  heard  and  wondered  and  were  under  convic- 
tion, were  converted  unto  God  or  confirmed  in  the 
faith. 

"One  reason  why  such  unprecedented  multitudes 
thronged  to  hear  him — it  is  said  that  for  nearly  six 
years  Mr.  Moody's  audiences,  afternoons  and  eve- 
nings, averaged  five  thousand — one  reason,  I  say, 
why  so  many  thronged  to  hear  him  was  that  he 
spake  as  one  having  authority. 

"  'Why  do  you  go  to  hear  Moody?'  said  a  lawyer 
scornfully  to  a  fellow  club  member;  'you  don't 
believe  as  he  does?'  'No,  but  he  believes  what  he 
preaches  with  all  his  heart,  and  it  is  well  to  meet 
such  a  man  in  these  days  of  doubt  and  uncertainty. ' 

"The  second  cardinal  feature  of  Mr.  Moody's  life 
was  his  devoti(  n  to  prayer.  Much  as  he  set  by  the 
Bible,  he  seemed  to  set  more  by  prayer.  For 
prayer  seemed  to  bring  him  face  to  face  with  God. 
His  prayer  was  talk  with  God,  even  as  friend  talks 
with  friend.  Far  into  the  night,  or  rising  a  long 
while  before  day,  he  communed  with  God. 

"  'They  that  seek  the  throne  of  grace, 
Find  that  throne  in  every  place. ' 

"It  was  singularly  true  of  him.  He  took  every- 
thing to  God  in  prayer.  He  lived  in  an  atmosphere 
of  prayer  that  fulfilled  Paul's  precept:  'Pray  with- 
out ceasing. '  He  was  an  impressive  illustration  of 
the  assurance:  'They  that  wait  on  the  Lord  shall 
renew  their  strength.  They  shall  mount  up  with 
wings  as  eagles ;  they  shall  run  and  not  be  weary, 
they  shall  walk  and  not  faint. '  Prayer  was  Moody's 
vital  breath. 


284  MEMORIAL. 

"  'Twas  Moody's  native  air; 

His  watchword  at  the  gate  of  death, 
He  entered  heaven  with  prayer. 

"A  third  feature  of  Mr.  Moody's  life  was  his  pro- 
digious activity.  He  was  active  in  season,  out  of 
season.  He  outworked  any  and  all  who  were 
associated  with  him.  For  more  than  forty  years  he 
has  been  indefatigable  in  the  promotion  of  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  think  of 
him,  and  justly,  as  the  great  evangelist  of  the 
century.  It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  evolution  of 
his  evangelistic  spirit  from  the  germ  of  his  thorough 
conversion  to  God,  to  godliness  and  to  godly  ser- 
vice. 

"It  was  in  May,  '56,  that  he  joined  the  Mt.  Ver- 
non Congregational  church  in  Boston.  In  the  fall 
of  that  year  he  went  to  Chicago  and  served  as  sales- 
man in  the  shoe  business.  Diligent  in  business,  he 
was  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord.  He  joined 
the  Plymouth  Congregational  church  of  Chicago, 
and  his  entrance  into  that  church  was  abundant. 

"He  rented  four  pews  and  kept  them  filled  with 
young  men  and  boys — a  splendid  idea  for  some 
young  man  or  young  men  of  this  church.  Mr. 
Moody  asked  for  a  Sunday-school  class.  He  was 
told  he  woiTld  be  welcome  to  teach  any  class  he 
chose  to  collect,  ^he  next  Sunday  he  marched  into 
the  school  at  the  head  of  eighteen  ragged  boys. 
Later  he  opened  a  mission  of  his  own  in  an  empty 
tavern.  The  school  grew  so  that  more  commodious 
quarters  had  to  be  secured.  Mr.  Moody  procured 
over  sixty  teachers  for  the  school,  the  average 
attendance  of  which  was  650.  In  i860,  Mr.  Moody 
gave  up  all  other  business  and  concentrated    his 


MEMORIAL.  285 

energies  upon  distinctly  Christian  work.  He  lived 
on  as  little  as  possible.  He  had  no  home.  His  bed 
was  a  bench  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Shortly  he  became 
a  city  missionary,  and  as  the  fruit  of  his  labors,  in 
1863  a  church  building  was  put  up.  In  1865  he  was 
elected  president  of  the  Chicago  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

"Mr,  Moody's  evangelistic  work  during  the  war 
was  conspicuous  and  prolific.  In  1867  he  went  abroad 
for  the  first  time,  and  again  in  1873.  You  know,  in 
general  terms,  of  his  blessed  work,  aided  by  Mr. 
Sankey,  whom  he  called  into  the  service  about  187 1 
— in  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  Mr.  Moody's 
ministry  abroad  marks  an  era  in  the  religious  life 
and  in  the  Church  of  God  of  Great  Britain.  Then 
there  were  the  great  hippodrome  meetings  in  New 
York  and  the  evangelistic  campaigns  in  Boston, 
Cleveland,  Brooklyn,  Chicago,  San  Francisco,  St. 
Louis.  Indeed,  nearly  every  city  of  any  size.  North, 
South,  East  and  West,  in  this  country  has  its  record 
of  Moody  meetings.  It  is  estimated  that  Mr. 
Moody,  during  his  evangelistic  work,  addressed  not 
fewer  than  100,000,000  persons. 

"We  further  associate  Mr.  Moody  with  the  sum- 
mer conferences  at  Northfield,  that  had  their  origin 
in  his  invitation  to  a  few  friends  to  his  home  for 
prayer  and  Bible  study.  His  evangelistic  influence 
has  been  reinforced,  extended  and  made  permanent 
by  the  press. 

"Three  or  four  years  ago  he  established  a  colpor- 
tage  association  for  the  dissemination  of  good  liter- 
ature, and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  books  have  been 
sent  to  prison  cells,  home  and  foreign  missionary 
fields  and  army  camps,  in  addition  to  a  large  circula- 
tion in  city  and  country  homes.      He  also  started 


286  MEMORIAL. 

two  maoazines  devoted  to  evangelistic  work.  I 
count  more  than  a  score  of  books,  the  fruit  of  his 
labor  on  the  platform,  in  his  spiritual  sanctum  and 
elsewhere. 

"But  Mr.  Moody,  plain  man  as  he  was,  not  versed 
in  the  wisdom  of  the  schools,  has  been  a  great  edu- 
cator. The  summer  conferences  at  Northfield  have 
been  in  the  best  sense  educational  for  college  men, 
young  women,  and  the  laity  in  general.  Four  institu- 
tions were  under  his  immediate  direction.  Besides, 
the  influence  of  Mr.  Moody  upon  the  pulpit,  upon 
theology,  upon  the  religious  life,  upon  a  broad- 
gauged  Catholic  Christianity  has  been  immeasur- 
able. Not  only  was  Mr.  Moody  the  greatest  evan- 
gelist since  Whitefield,  and  a  most  aggressive  and 
practical  educator,  but  a  great  builder. 

"I  find  the  following  statement  in  a  recent  number 
of  the  New  York  Tribune:  'His  first  building  was 
the  Illinois  Street  church  in  Chicago,  erected  about 
1858,  for  the  shelter  of  his  mission  school,  and  the 
church  which  grew  out  of  it.  His  second  building 
enterprise  was  the  Young  Men  s  Christian  Associa- 
tion building  in  Chicago,  erected  in  1866,  the  first 
commodious  edifice  for  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation purposes  in  this  country.  His  third  enter- 
prise was  the  re-erection  of  the  first  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  building,  destroyed  by  fire. 
This  also  was  destro^'ed  in  the  great  fire  of  1871, 
and  again  rebuilt,  mainly  through  Mr.  Moody's 
efforts.  The  other  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion buildings  in  America,  for  which  money  was 
raised  by  Mr.  Moody,  and  in  whose  erection  he  was 
more  or  less  conspicuous,  were  at  New  York,  Bos- 


MEMORIAL.  287 

ton,    Philadelphia,    San   Francisco,    Baltimore   and 
Scranton. 

"  'In  Great  Britain  there  were  erected  by  Mr 
Moody's  personal  efforts,  or  from  the  inspiration  of 
his  works;  Christian  Union  building,  Dublin;  Chris-' 
tian  Institute  building,  Glasgow;  Carubber's  Close 
mission,    Edinburgh ;  the  story  of  which  is  not  only 
interesting,   but  romantic;  Conference  hall,    Strat- 
ford; Down  Lodge  hall,  Wandsworth,  London,  and" 
the    Young    Men's  Christian  Association  building, 
Liverpool. 

"'In  addition  to  the  above  are  twenty  or  more 
buildings  at  Northfield,  Mass.  ;  the  Chicago  Avenue 
church  and  Bible  Institute  buildings,  Chicago. ' 

"Such,  in  barest  outline,  is  a  memorandum  of  the 
work  and  labor  of  love  in  which  he  was  always 
abounding,  and  that,  too,  notwithstanding  that  of 
late  years  he  was  compassed  by  the  infirmity  of  a 
weak  heart. 

"When  challenged  to  run  a  foot  race  at  a  Sunday- 
school  picnic  in  Northfield  a  few  years  ago  he  said : 
'  I  have  heart  disease,  and  would  fall  dead  if  I  should 
make  such  an  effort. '  At  the  same  time  he  was 
administering  the  multiform  interests  that  absorbed 
mind  and  heart  and  time. 

"The  fourth  cardinal  feature  of  Mr.  Moody's  life 
was  his  fellowship  with  the  Father,  with  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ,  and  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  was 
the  supreme  reality  in  Mr.  Moody's  life.  Enoch 
walked  with  God;  so  did  Moody.  His  conversation 
or  citizenship  was  in  heaven.  That  fellowship  was 
the  mainspring  in  the  mechanism  of  his  character 
and  career.  It  was  that  that  made  him  so  devoted 
to  God's  Word  that  stimulated  him  to  pray  and  that 


288  MEMORIAL. 

it  was  made  him  abound  so  in  the  work  of  the  Lord, 
and  made  him  so  assured  about  the  great  salvation 

"  'My  mind  is  made  up,'  he  said  one  time,  'on  the 
question  proposed  namely,  the  relative  merits  of 
Christianity  and  infidelity.  Somebody  once  asked 
Charles  Sumner  to  hear  the  other  side  of  slavery. 
"Hear  the  other  side?"  he  replied.  "There  is  no 
other  side.  I  would  as  soon  discuss  the  merits  of 
Christianity  and  infidelity. ' '  '  No  one  who  studied  his- 
tory,' said  Mr.  Moody,  'need  hesitate  in  answering 
the  question.  I  know  what  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
has  done  for  me  during  the  last  forty  years  since  I 
trusted  Him  Let  the  members  of  your  club  accept 
Christ  as  their  personal  Saviour,  and  they  need  not 
waste  time  discussing  such  a  question.  If  I  had  a 
remedy  that  never  failed  to  cure  disease  for  forty 
years,  I  should  not  stop  to  compare  its  merits  with 
another  remedy.' 

"It  was  his  fellowship  with  Christ  that  made  him 
determine  to  know  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified.  It  was  because  the  Spirit  taught 
him  and  brought  all  things  to  his  remembrance  that 
He  was  so  instructed,  unto  the  kingdom  of  Heaven, 
that  He  was  able  to  bring  forth  out  of  the  treasury 
of  truth  things  new  and  old.  It  was  his  nearness  to 
Christ  that  brought  him  so  near  to  the  Christian, 
and  that  raised  him  so  far  above  the  plane  of  denom- 
inationalism.  It  was  his  fellowship  with  Christ  that 
inspired  him  with  such  a  perennial  passion  for  souls. 
His  fellowship  with  Christ  kept  him  humble. 

"By  contrast  to  the  ineffable  holiness  of  the  Lord, 
he  exclaimed  with  Peter:  'Depart  from  me,  for  I 
am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord. '  His  fellowship  with  God 
made  him  to  an  almost  unparalleled  degree  fearless, 


MEMORIAL.  289 

unconstrained  and  at  home  in  the  presence  of 
princes,  or  of  men  mighty  for  wealth,  wisdom  or 
social  rank.  His  attitude  was  never  apologetic. 
He  was  a  righteous  man  who,  in  the  delivery  of  his 
message,  however  faulty  it  might  be  judged  by  the 
canons  of  rhetoric  or  good  literary  form,  was  bold 
as  a  lion.  He  walked  before  God  as  God  told  Abra- 
ham to  do.  No  man  came  between  him  and  God. 
He  saw  no  man  save  Jesus  only.  To  his  own  loving 
and  beloved  Master  he  stood  or  fell.  Consummate 
achievement! 

"This  was  what  Dr.  Pentacost  meant  who  wrote 
me  in  a  letter  from  Northfield : 

"  'Dear  old  Moody  is  under  ground.  During  his 
life  I  have  never  known  a  man  so  very  much  above 
ground  as  he.     Peace  be  to  his  soul. ' 

"It  was  Mr.  Moody's  fellowship  with  God  that 
kept  him  so  true  to  himself.  He  was  simply  and 
grandly  natural.  His  tact,  his  rare  sagacity,  his 
wealth  of  saving  common  sense,  his  superb  adminis- 
trative ability  stood  out  in  the  bolder  relief  because 
of  the  God  who  wrought  in  him.  Let  God  have  free 
course  in  a  man's  life  as  he  did  in  Mr.  Moody's  and 
that  man's  personality  is  wonderfully  developed. 
He  wears  no  affected  air,  he  does 'not  talk  in  one 
tone  and  preach  in  another  and  pray  in  another. 
He  is  not  one  sort  of  man  on  Sunday  and  another 
sort  of  man  the  rest  of  the  week,  but  he  is  simply 
natural  all  the  while.  The  man  who  lives  near- 
est Christ  lives  nearest  to  his  own  individuality. 
He  who  is  likest  to  Christ  is  most  unlike  other 
Christians  is  truest  to  himself  as  distinguished  from 
other  men.  This  was  why,  from  first  to  last,  Moody 
was  Moody.      At  home  or  abroad,  in  private  or  in 


290  MEMORIAL. 

public,  before  ten  or  ten  thousand,  he  was  simply 
Moody. 

"The  picture  you  have  seen  of  him  in  the  papers 
since  his  death  is  not  that  of  the  preacher  but  of  the 
man  in  his  wagon  with  reins  and  whip  in  hand, 
wearing  a  soft  hat  and  in  everyday  negligee  dress. 
There  was  but  one  Moody  in  the  world.  It  was 
God  working  in  him  that  wrought  out  his  individu 
ality. 

"Such  was  the  man — devoted  to  the  Bible,  a  man 
who  prayed  to  God  always,  who  wrought  inces- 
santly, diversely,  unweariedly,  and  with  superlative 
fruitfulness,  and  whose  life  was  hid  with  Christ  in 
God. 

"Then  came  the  end,  the  end  of  the  beginning. 
'God  is  calling  me,'  he  said.  He  had  the  ear  to 
hear.  And  he  had  the  eye  to  see.  'I  see  earth 
receding.  Heaven  is  opening.  If  this  is  dying,  it 
is  bliss. ' 

"The  following  account  of  the  funeral  was  sent 
me  by  one  of  the  honorary  pall  bearers : 

"  'The  entire  services  at  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Moody 
was  full  of  a  spirit  of  triumph.  Within  a  few 
moments  of  his  departure  he  had  exclaimed :  "Is 
this  death?  This  is  bliss!"  He  was  indeed  an  exult- 
ant victor  over  the  last  enemy.  As  thirty-two  Mt. 
Hermon  boys  carried  what  was  mortal  of  him 
through  the  streets  of  Northfield  from  his  home  to  the 
church  and  later  from  the  church,  past  the  house 
where  he  was  born  and  where  his  mother  not  long 
ago  died,  to  his  place  of  rest  on  Round  Top,  the  same 
consciousness  of  victory — the  victory  of  faith  in 
Christ — was  strongly  felt  by  every  spectator. ' 

"During  the  funeral  service  in  the  church,  as  his 


MEMORIAL.  291 

pastor,  Dr.  Schofield,  President  Weston,  Dr.  Chap- 
man, Dr.  Wharton,  Dr.  Pierson  and  John  Wana- 
maker  followed  one  another  in  impressive  testi- 
mony concerning  the  friend,  the  guide,  the  teacher, 
the  comforter,  the  revealer  of  Christ  whom  they 
had  found  in  this  man,  the  note  of  sorrow  and  of 
mourning  was  lost  in  the  loftier  note  of  the  triumph- 
ant life  of  faith  and  love  and  unselfish  service,  which 
these  addresses  vividly  presented. 

"The  venerable  President  Weston  pronounced 
him  the  greatest  religious  character  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  What  most  contributed  to  give  him 
this  pre-eminence  was  the  possession  by  him — so  far 
beyond  others — of  that  life,  concerning  which  Jesus 
said:  'I  am  come  that  ye  might  have  life  and  that 
ye  might  have  it  more  abundantly. ' 

"Dr.  Chapman  said: 

"  'It  was  through  Mr.  Moody's  agency  that  I  be- 
came a  Christian,  through  his  influence  I  entered 
the  ministry  and  when  my  ministry  was  poor  and 
unfruitful  he  was  the  messenger  from  God  through 
whom  I  received  the  spiritual  impulse  and  blessing 
which  has  given  any  fruitfulness  to  my  work  as 
evangelist,  minister  and  pastor.  Very  often  I  have 
sought  him  at  critical  times  for  counsel  and  always 
received  from  him  the  brotherly  sympathy  and  help 
I  needed. ' 

"Mr.  Moody's  death  appeals  to  me  as  a  change  of 
base  from  one  scene  of  service  to  another.  Accord- 
ingly it  is,  as  I  said  at  the  outset  of  this  sermon,  that 
the  words  that  first  came  into  mind  after  hearing  of 
Mr.  Moody's  death  were :  'They  serve  him  day  anci 
night. ' 


292  MEMORIAL. 

"Tennyson  in  his  Ode  on  the  death  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  sings : 

"  'We  doubt  not  that  for  one  so  true, 
There's  other  nobler  work  to  do 
Than  when  he  fought  at  Waterloo.* 

"So  with  Mr.  Moody. 

"Indeed,  I  remember  his  saying,  'By  and  by  you 
will  hear  people  say,  Mr.  Moody  is  dead.  Don't 
you  believe  a  word  of  it.  At  that  very  moment  I 
shall  be  more  alive  than  I  am  now.  I  shall  then 
truly  begin  to  live.  I  was  born  of  the  flesh  in  1837. 
I  was  born  of  the  Spirit  in  1856.  That  which  is 
born  of  the  flesh  may  die.  That  which  is  born  of 
the  Spirit  will  live  forever. ' 

"I  have  thought  of  Mr.  Moody  as  seeing  Jesus 
face  to  face,  whom  having  not  seen,  he  so  dearly 
loved.  I  have  pictured  the  great  multitude  whom 
no  man  can  number,  whom  he  has  been  instru- 
mental in  saving  and  serving,  as  greeting  him  and 
as  sitting  down  with  him  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
high. 

"I  have  thought  of  him  as  paying  his  public  trib- 
ute to  the  Christ  to  whom  he  was  so  beholden,  and 
as  renewedly  consecrating  himself  to  his  service.  I 
have  thought  of  him  as  telling  to  the  saints  in  glory 
what  the  grace  of  God  has  done  for  him  and  through 
him. 

"I  have  imagined  a  mammoth  testimony  meet- 
ing presided  over  by  Mr.  Moody,  at  which  new 
songs  of  redemption  have  been  sung,  and  where 
hearts  out  of  their  abundance  have  testified  to  what 
God,  through  dear  Mr.  Moody,  has  done  for  them. 

"And  if  the  old,  old  story  has  yet  to  be  told  any- 
where in  God's  universe  except  on  this  earth,  by 


MEMORIAL.  293 

those  who  have  passed  from  earth  to  heaven,  I  am 
sure  that  D wight  L.  Moody's  commission  will  not 
long  be  delayed. 

"His  career,  so  remarkable  as  evangelist,  edu. 
cator,  builder,  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all, 
as  man  of  God  and  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  will 
make  him  fitter  than  ever  to  engage  in  the  service 
of  heaven.  His  new  environment,  the  presence  of 
the  King,  his  fuller,  clearer  vision,  the  glorious 
freedom  he  enjoys  from  all  restrictions,  must  make 
of  the  old,  old  story  of  Jesus  and  his  love,  which  he 
delighted  so  to  tell  on  earth,  the  new,  new  story  of 
redemption  it  will  be  his  supernal  satisfaction  to 
relate. 

"Would  that  the  young  men  of  Rochester  might 
have  had  their  heart's  desire  gratified  by  hearing 
him  as  they  confidently  anticipated.  But  their  loss 
is  his  gain  and  the  gain  of  all  to  whom  he  has  yet 
to  minister. 

"May  God  bless  to  us  the  departure  out  of  this 
life  of  His  good  and  faithful  servant,  by  intensifying 
our  devotion  to  the  Bible,  by  making  us  more  prayer- 
ful, by  stimulating  us  to  more  fruitful  service,  and 
by  attracting  us  to  a  closer  walk  with  God.  And 
may  what  we  are  and  what  we  do  on  earth  qualify 
us  for  higher  attainment  and  larger  achievement  in 
heaven  '' 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  GREAT  GROUP. 

BY  REV.   DR.    NEWELL  DWIGHT    HILLIS    IN    -'THE 
INTERIOR." 

When  long  time  hath  passed,  some  historian,  re- 
calling the  great  epochs  and  religious  teachers  of 
our  century,  will  say,  "There  were  four  men  sent 
forth  by  God:  their  names — Charles  Spurgeon, 
Phillips  Brooks,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  Dwight 
L.  Moody."  Each  was  a  herald  of  good  tidings; 
each  was  a  prophet  of  a  new  social  and  religious 
order,  and  each  made  a  permanent  contribution  to 
the  Christian  church;  while  of  all  it  may  be  said 
their  sermons  were  translated  into  many  tongues 
and  their  names  known  in  every  town  and  city 
where  the  English  language  is  spoken.  For  our 
instruction,  reb.uke  and  inspiration  God  hath  raised 
up  other  preachers,  representing  a  high  order  of  in- 
tellect, marked  eloquence,  and  permanent  influence ; 
but  as  to  the  first  order  of  greatness,  there  have 
been  perhaps  these  four — no  more.  God  girded 
each  of  these  prophets  for  his  task,  and  taught  him 
how  to  "dip  his  sword  in  heaven.  "  In  characterizing 
the  message  of  these  men  we  say  that  Spurgeon  was 
expositional,  Phillips  Brooks  devotional,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  prophetic  and  philosophical,  while 
Dwight  L.  Moody  was  a  herald  rather  than  teacher, 

294 


LAST  OF  THE  GROUP.  295 

addressing  himself  to  the  common  people — the  un- 
churched multitudes.  The  symbol  of  the  great  Eng- 
lish preacher  is  a  lighted  lamp,  the  symbol  of  Brooks 
a  flaming  heart,  the  symbol  of  Beecher  an  orchestra 
of  many  instruments,  while  Mr.  Moody  was  a 
trumpet,  sounding  the  advance,  sometimes  through 
inspiration  and  sometimes  through  alarm. 

And  our  sorrow  to-day  is  the  more,  in  that  the  last 
of  these  giants  has  gone  down  to  the  valley  and  dis- 
appeared behind  the  thick  shadow.  Oft  in  hours  of 
gloom  and  doubt,  full  oft  in  days  when  wickedness 
seemed  enthroned  in  high  places,  when  the  rich 
seemed  to  be  selfish  in  their  strength,  and  the  poor 
without  an  advocate  in  high  places,  when  good  men 
seemed  weakness  and  leaders  seemed  a  lie,  in  our 
depression  we  have  turned  our  thoughts  toward  the 
three  prophets,  in  the  English  Tabernacle,  in  Trin- 
ity and  in  Plymouth,  or  toward  the  evangelist  and 
friend  of  the  people,  and  have  been  comforted  by 
the  mere  thought  that  things  were  a  little  safer  be- 
cause these  four  men  were  in  their  appointed  places. 
The  first  three  were  commanders,  each  over  his 
regiment,  and  worked  from  a  fixed  center,  but  the 
evangelist  was  the  leader  of  a  flying  band,  who 
went  everywhither  into  the  enemy's  country, seeking 
conquests  of  peace  and  righteousness.  Be  the  rea- 
sons what  they  may,  the  common  people  gladly 
heard  the  great  evangelist.  In  his  death,  the  un- 
churched classes  have  lost  their  best  friend.  Fallen 
now  their  tower  of  strength.  Changed,  too,  the 
very  face  of  our  moral  landscape.  For  nearly  forty 
years  the  multitudes  have  pressed  and  thronged  into 
the  great  halls  and  churches  to  hear  this  herald 


296  LAST  OF  THE  GROUP. 

speak  of  duty,  sin,  salvation,  and  God's  love  in 
Christ.  But  disappearing  from  our  sight  he  is  not 
dead.  While  life  continues,  for  multitudes  he  will 
remain  a  cool  spring  flowing  in  a  desert,  the  covert 
of  a  rock  in  time  of  sorrow. 

For  Lne  republic,  the  roll-call  of  self-made  men  is 
long  and  brilliant.  Orators  like  Clay  come  in  from 
the  corn-fields,  statesmen  like  Webster  come  from 
the  bleak  hillsides  of  New  England,  presidents  like 
Lincoln  come  forth  from  the  universit)'  of  rail-split- 
ting, the  inventors,  merchants,  and  editors  come  in 
from  rural  districts  and  villages,  and  all  are  the 
architects  of  their  own  fortunes.  But  among  all  this 
group  of  men  whose  life  in  low  estate  began  on  a 
simple  village  green,  none  is  more  thrilling  in  its 
struggles,  more  picturesque  in  its  contrasts,  and  more 
pathetic  in  its  defeats  and  victories  than  that  of  the 
great  evangelist.  An  orphan  at  four,  one  of  the 
props  of  the  family  at  nine,  at  nineteen  a  clerk  in  a 
shoe  store  of  Chicago,  at  twenty-three  the  founder 
of  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  where  he 
slept  on  the  benches  because  he  had  no  bed,  and 
bought  4  loaf  at  the  bakery  because  he  had  no  money 
for  board.  At  twenty-four,  the  superintendent  of  a 
Sunday-school  in  a  deserted  saloon,  where  his  pupils 
were  drunkards,  tramps,  ragamuffins,  mingled  with 
street  waifs  and  boys  from  a  newsboys'  home.  At 
forty,  the  most  widely-talked-about  man  in  Great 
Britain,  where  his  friends  were  college  presidents 
and  professors,  authors,  editors,  statesmen,  scien- 
tists, like  Drummond  and  Lord  Kelvin.  Returning 
home,  in  Philadelphia,  he  found  that  merchants  had 
erected  for  his  meetings  a  building  seating  ten  thou- 
sand people,  an  event   that   was   repeated  in  New 


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LAST  OF  THE  GROUP.  299 

York,  Boston,  Chicago,  and  many  other  great  cities 
in  our  land.  At  fifty-three  he  founded  a  training 
school  for  young  men  and  women  in  Chicago  that 
has  sent  out  fifteen  hundred  workers,  a  school  for 
young  men  at  East  Northfield,  and  for  young  women 
at  Mount  Hermon,  institutions  that  now  have  for 
their  work  more  than  a  score  of  great  buildings. 
Thrilling,  indeed,  this  story.  It  repeats  the  expe- 
rience of  young  David,  who  passed  from  the  sheeps- 
cote  to  the  king's  throne,  and  the  scepter  of  uni- 
versal sway. 

"Where  were  the  hidings  of  his  power?"  you  ask. 
From  nothing,  nothing  comes.  Blood  tells.  A 
great  ancestr}^  explains  a  great  man.  The  time  was 
when  men  thought  God  called  the  prophet.  But 
when  God  wants  a  John  the  Baptist,  he  calls  not  the 
son,  but  the  father  and  mother,  and  they  ordain  the 
child  in  the  cradle,  and  before  the  cradle.  When 
the  Hebrews  were  in  bondage  in  Egypt,  one  mother 
there  was,  brave  enough  to  dare  the  king,  and  hide 
her  babe  in  an  ark,  amidst  the  bulrushes,  and  the 
mother's  courage  repeated  itself  in  the  greatest  of 
jurists,  Moses.  Hannah  was  a  dreamer  who  loved 
solitude,  and  walked  the  hills  alone  with  God ;  whose 
eyes  "were  homes  of  silent  prayer,"  and  her  relig- 
ious genius  repeated  itself  in  her  son  Samuel,  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  judges.  What  was  unique  in 
Timothy,  Paul  tells  us,  was  first  of  all  unique  in  his 
mother  Lois,  and  his  grandmother  Eunice.  And  the 
greatest  evangelist  since  Whitefield  had  his  power 
through  the  ordainment  of  a  great  ancestry.  He 
was  of  the  best  old  New  England  stock.  His  father 
had  the  fine  old  Puritan  fiber,  and  his  mother,  wid- 
owed with  her  little  flock  about  her,  exhibits  almost 

17 


300  LAST  OF  THE  GROUP. 

unparalleled  heroism,  courage,  and  hope  in  the  hour 
of  suffering  and  trouble.  For  the  tides  of  power  in 
this  man  flow  down  from  the  ancestral  hills.  Among 
his  birth  gifts  was  the  gift  of  perfect  health  and  a 
perfect  body,  with  stores  of  energy  that  seemed  well- 
nigh  inexhaustible. 

His,  also,  was  the  gift  of  common  sense,  a  mind 
hungry  for  knowledge,  a  reason  that  saw  clearly  or 
saw  not  at  all;  moral  earnestness,  sincerity,  self- 
reliance,  courage,  wit,  humor,  pathos,  an  intuitive 
knowledge  of  men,  the  genius  for  organization. 
Like  Isaiah,  he  had  a  quenchless  passion  for  right- 
eousness. Like  Daniel,  he  had  the  courage  of  his 
convictions  in  the  face  of  fierce  opposition.  Like 
Paul,  his  enthusiasm  for  men  made  him  the  herald 
of  righteousness  to  foreign  nations.  Like  Bernard, 
his  was  the  crusader's  heart,  organizing  his  hosts 
against  passion,  ignorance  and  sin.  Without  the 
eloquence  of  Spurgeon,  without  the  fine  culture  of 
Phillips  Brooks,  without  the  supreme  genius  of  Mr. 
Beecher,  Mr.  Moody  was  a  herald,  a  man  sent  forth 
from  God,  who  called  the  unchurched  classes  to  re- 
pentance, who  flamed  forth  on  them  the  love  of  God 
in  Christ.  For  nearly  six  years,  it  is  said  that  Mr. 
Moody's  audiences  averaged  five  thousand,  each 
afternoon  and  evening.  A  record  that  has  never 
been  surpassed  in  all  the  history  of  evangelism. 
"Our  bishops, "  said  the  London  Telegraph,  "have 
back  of  them  a  state  income,  great  cathedrals,  a 
small  army  of  paid  helpers  and  musicians,  but  where 
our  bishops  have  reached  tens  this  man  has  reached 
hundreds." 

If  preaching  is  man  making  and  man  mending, 
then    Mr.    Moody   was   a    veritable    prince  among 


LAST  OF  THE  GROUP.  301 

preachers.  In  view  of  the  great  audiences  of  fif- 
teen thousand  people  that  thronged  into,  or  about, 
the  hall  in  Kansas  City,  where  he  preached  his  last 
sermon,  all  must  confess  that  no  preacher  in  the 
land  since  Mr.  Beecher's  time  was  comparable  to 
Mr.  Moody  in  personal  popularity,  or  in  power  to 
hold  the  masses.  Any  student  skilled  in  the  art  of 
reading  human  nature,  who  has  been  upon  the  plat- 
form beside  the  great  evangelist,  and  while  -listen- 
ing to  his  words  has  noted  their  effects  upon  the 
faces  of  the  vast  audience  before  him,  must  make 
haste  to  affirm  that  Mr.  Moody  knew  the  human 
mind  and  heart  as  a  skillful  musician  knows  his  in- 
strument, and  sweeps  all  the  banks  of  keys  before 
him.  In  the  addresses  that  were  given  no  element 
of  great  speech  was  lacking.  Mr.  Moody  moved  his 
audiences  from  tears  to  laughter;  for  laughter  and 
tears  are  outer  signs  of  inner  thoughts  and  feelings. 
Life  is  determined  by  the  emotions  of  the  heart 
quite  "as  much  as  by  the  arguments  of  the  head.  No 
matter  how  scholarly  or  intellectual  the  preacher 
may  be,  he  is  at  best  a  second-rate  preacher  whose 
truth  burns  with  a  cold,  white  light.  Truth  in  the 
hands  of  an  intellectual  philosopher  who  has  found 
his  way  into  the  pulpit,  cuts  with  a  keen  edge,  in- 
deed, but  truth  in  Mr.  Moody's  hands  has  been 
heated  red  hot,  and  the  edge  of  his  sword  burns  as 
well  as  cuts ;  like  the  Word  of  God,  dividing  be- 
tween the  joints  and  marrow,  and  separating  the 
sinner  from  his  evil  deeds. 

No  misconception  can  be  greater  than  to  suppose 
that  Mr.  Moody  has  succeeded  in  spite  of  his  lack  of 
theological  preparation.  My  old  professor  of  dog- 
matic  theology   criticised   me   harshly   during  my 


302  LAST  OF  THE  GROUP. 

studefit  days  for  going  to  hear  Mr.  Moody  on  Sun- 
day morning.  Because  the  great  evangelist  was  a 
layman,  and  unordained,  this  distinguished  theolo- 
gian said  that  he  declined  to  attend  any  of  Mr. 
Moody's  meetings  during  his  great  campaign  in  a 
city  in  which  this  professor  had  formerly  resided. 
It  is  true  that  Mr.  Moody  had  never  crossed  the 
threshold  of  college  or  theological  seminary.  More- 
over, in  his  enthusiasm  he  often  used  the  vernacu- 
lar, homely  idioms,  and  in  every  sermon  broke  some 
of  the  laws  of  grammar  or  of  rhetoric.  But  noth- 
ing is  risked  in  the  statement  that  it  was  a  great 
good  fortune  for  him  that  he  never  found  his  way 
into  a  theological  seminary.  Nevertheless,  he  was 
a  past  master  in  his  chosen  art.  He  reached  men, 
not  because  he  knew  so  little  about  preaching,  but 
because  he  knew  so  much.  Could  some  scholar  take 
a  volume  of  Mr.  Moody's  sermons,  and  condense  his 
thoughts,  methods,  appeals  and  illustrations  into  a 
volume  of  homiletics,  the  book  would  be  so  large 
and  comprehensive  that  the  ordinary  work  on  the 
art  of  preaching  would  not  make  an  introduction 
thereto.  Taken  all  in  all,  for  the  work  of  an  evan- 
gelist, this  man  represents  more  culture,  and  more 
thought  about  the  methods  of  reaching  the  common 
people  than  any  other  man  in  his  generation.  To 
him  it  has  been  given  to  meet  all  the  great  preach- 
ers of  the  day,  and  to  work  with  them.  His  was 
also  the  power  of  selection  from  each  Spurgeon,  or 
Maclaren,  or  Brooks,  or  Beecher,  and  from  each  he 
selected  his  special  gift  and  excellence.  Having 
spent  eight  months  of  each  year  in  working  with 
the  foremost  pastors  at  home  and  abroad,  he  has 
had  four  months  in  summer  for  study  and  confer- 


LAST  OF  THE  GROUP.  303 

ence.  Those  who  have  seen  Mr.  Moody's  library- 
know  that  this  man  has  been  a  student  of  books  as 
well  as  men.  Superficial,  indeed,  the  judgment  of 
those  who  think  that  Mr.  Moody  was  without  edu- 
cation, or  training,  or  logic,  or  knowledge  of  preach- 
ing as  a  science.  With  him  preaching  became  a 
fine  art,  an  art  that  conceals  the  art.  Did  our  the- 
ological seminaries  multiply  their  three  years  of 
study  by  two,  they  could  not  hope  to  equip  their 
students  as  long  study  and  experience  with  men  and 
books  have  equipped  Mr.  Moody.  The  methods  the 
great  evangelist  adopted  gather  up  the  experience 
of  twenty  years  of  working  with  the  greatest  preach- 
ers of  England,  Scotland  and  America.  Perhaps  of 
all  the  arts  and  occupations  in  our  age,  not  one  is 
comparable  to  the  art  of  preaching.  It  demands  the 
highest  talent,  the  deepest  culture,  tireless  practice 
and  complete  consecration  And  happy  the  gener- 
ation to  whom  God  gave  this  herald  of  good  tidings, 
this  friend  of  the  common  people,  this  messenger  to 
the  unchurched  multitudes,  who  followed  him  as 
their  leader  along  those  paths  that  lead  to  prosper- 
ity and  peace,  to  Christ,  man's  Saviour,  to  God, 
man's  Father. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


THE  NORTHFIELD    SCHOOLS. 

The  vicinity  of  Northfield,  the  seat  of  Mr.  Moody's 
labors,  was  first  settled  in  1673,  and  twice  within  a 
few  years  the  town  was  depopulated  by  raids  and 
massacres  by  the  Mohawks  and  other  Indian  tribes. 
The  third  and  permanent  settlement  was  made  in 
1 7 13.  The  natural  resources  of  the  town  were  de- 
veloped. Bricks  were  made  from  the  clay,  a  grist 
mill  erected  and  tar  kilns  established.  A  malt  house 
was  erected  in  1721.  The  people  were  constantly 
menaced  by  Indians,  but  the  settlement,  notwith- 
standing all  that,  had  an  average  of  healthy  growth. 

When  the  Chicago  fire  destroyed  Mr.  Moody's 
church  and  home,  his  plans  were  changed  and  he 
went  to  England.  On  his  return  from  Europe  he 
visited  the  old  homestead  of  Northfield  and  deter- 
mined to  make  his  future  home  there.  While 
enjoying  the  contentment  which  came  from  seeing 
old  friends,  recalling  old  memories,  and  surveying 
as  beautiful  a  pastoral  picture  as  can  be  seen  in  that 
section  of  the  country,  he  developed  the  plans  for 
his  school  at  that  place.  His  principal  idea  was  to 
plan  a  school  where  the  girls  in  the  isolated  homes 
on  the  mountain  sides  might  receive  a  careful  train- 
ing in  the  Bible  at  a  moderate  expense.  The  first 
^ract  of  land  for  this  purpose  was  bought  by  Mr. 

304 


THE  NORTHFIELD  SCHOOLS.  305 

Moody  in  1878  and  consisted  of  270  acres,  and  to  this 
was  added  16  acres  opposite  Mr.  Moody's  house, 
that  same  year.  The  next  year  the  work  was  begun 
on  a  school-house.  The  school  opened  November 
3,  1879,  with  twenty-five  pupils.  In  1880  the  first 
dormitory,  known  as  East  Hall,  was  opened  and 
was  at  once  filled  with  girls.  Banar  Hall  was  erected 
and  shortly  after  was  burned.  Marquand  Hall  was 
dedicated  in  1885.  Other  buildings  followed  until 
the  school  reached  its  present  proportion. 

Northfield  has  been  greatly  improved  since  Mr. 
Moody  began  his  work  there.  The  desolate  and 
rock-covered  hills  have  taken  on  a  coating  of  velvet 
turf.  Well  built  roads  wind  through  the  grounds 
and  between  the  different  buildings,  and  shade  trees 
and  shrubbery  have  been  planted  where  they  would 
improve  the  view. 

The  land  not  utilized  for  lawns,  building  purposes 
and  roads,  has  been  placed  under  the  care  of  practi- 
cal farmers,  who  have  made  it  yield  sufficient  pro- 
ducts to  furnish  a  large  portion  of  the  supplies  used 
in  the  schools.  There  are  also  a  number  of  horses, 
of  which  Mr.  Moody  was  very  fond,  he  being  consid- 
ered an  excellent  judge  of  horse  flesh.  For  this 
reputation  he  has  frequently  been  assailed  by  his 
critics,  and  at  one  time  the  story  went  the  rounds 
that  'he  had  paid  as  much  as  $2, 800  for  a  finely  gaited 
animal  that  caught  his  admiration.  He  allowed  the 
story  to  go  uncontradicted  for  some  weeks  imder  the 
impression  that  people  would  not  believe  it,  and 
when  he  did  refer  to  the  matter  he  said  that  he  had 
not  paid  $2,800  for  the  horse  but  had  only  paid  a 
little  less  than  one-tenth  of  that  amount. 

The  expenses  of  boarding  and  tuition  at  the  Semi- 


306  THE  NORTHFIELD  SCHOOLS. 

nary  from  the  time  of  its  founding  has  been  $100.00 
a  year.  All  the  housework  is  done  by  the  students, 
still  the  sum  paid  for  tuition  only  can  pay  about 
one-half  the  expenses,  the  other  half  is  met  by  the 
income  of  a  small  endowment,  and  by  royalties  from 
the  sale  of  books  and  by  contributions. 

The  principal  text  book  is  of  course  the  Bible,  and 
one  of  the  obligations  of  attendance  there  is  that  a 
pupil  must  recite  from  it  twice  a  week. 

Immediately  in  front  of  the  porch  where  Mr. 
Moody  used  to  sit  so  often  and  chat  with  his  friends, 
is  an  oval  sweep  of  grass  land  descending  to  the 
river,  and  up  the  valley  far  away  the  eye  rests  on 
the  mountains.  Within  the  house  it  is  roomy,  spa- 
cious and  comfortable.  On  the  right  of  the  pas- 
sage a  library,  on  the  left  a  reception  room,  and  be- 
yond it  the  dining  room.  Up- stairs  was  Mr. 
Moody's  private  and  special  den,  the  walls  of  which 
were  lined  with  books,  all  of  them  bearing  upon  the 
Scriptures. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


GREAT  RELIGIOUS  REVIVALS. 

Religions  revivals  have  ever  been  a  source  of 
interest  to  students  of  sociology,  history  and  religion. 
There  have  been  times  in  the  past  in  this  country 
when  different  sections  were  interested  in  religious 
matters,  but  there  have  only  been  a  few  times  when 
all  parts  of  the  country  have  been  awaked  at  the 
same  time.  These  events  have  been  designated  as 
periods  of  great  religious  awakening,  and  are  admir- 
ably described  in  a  paper  by  Rev.  James  Brand  of 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  read  before  the  World's  Congress  of 
Religions,  held  in  Chicago  in  1893.    Dr.  Brand  says: 

"The  first  century  of  religious  history  in  this 
country  was  largely  devoted  to  church  polity  and 
the  relation  of  religion  to  the  state.  Spiritually  it 
was  a  rather  barren  period.  There  had  been  some 
revivals  from  1670  to  171 2,  but  they  were  local  and 
limited  in  extent.  The  first  great  movement  which 
really  molded  American  Christianity  was  in  1740- 
1760,  called  "The  Great  Awakening,"  under  the 
leadership  of  Jonathan  Edwards  Whitefield,  Wesley 
and  the  Tennants,  of  New  Jersey.  This  movement 
was  probably  the  most  influential  force  which  has 
ever  acted  upon  the  development  of  the  Christian 
religion  since  the  Protestant  reformation.  In  1740 
the  population  o£  New  England  was  not  more  than 
18  307 


308  GREAT  RELIGIOUS  REVIVALS. 

250,000,  and  in  all  the  colonies  about  2,000,000. 
Yet  it  is  estimated  that  more  than  50,000  persons 
were  converted  to  Christ  in  that  revival — a  far 
greater  proportion  than  at  any  other  period  of  our 
history.  This  movement  overthrew  the  so-called 
"half-way  covenant,"  a  pernicious  system  which 
had  filled  both  the  churches  and  pulpits  with  uncon- 
verted men.  In  1740  men  without  any  pretense  of 
piety  studied  theology,  and  "if  neither  heretical  or 
openly  immoral  were  ordained  to  the  ministry," 
and  multitudes  of  men  were  received  to  church  mem- 
bership without  any  claim  to  Christian  life.  The 
great  awakening  reversed  that  stage  of  things. 
Students  of  theology  were  converted  in  great  num- 
bers, and  prominent  men  to  the  number  of  twenty, 
who  had  been  long  in  the  pulpits  in  and  about  Bos- 
ton, regarded  George  Whitefield  as  the  means, 
under  God,  of  their  conversion  to  Christ.  This 
revival  was  not  confined  to  New  England  or  to  any 
one  body  of  Christians.  All  denominations  in  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey  and  the  South  were 
equally  blessed.  The  movement  awakened  the  pub- 
lic mind  more  fully  to  the  claims  of  home  missions, 
especially  among  the  Indians.  It  likewise  gave  a 
great  impulse  to  Christian  education.  The  found- 
ing of  Princeton  college  was  one  of  the  direct  fruits. 
Dartmouth  college,  founded  in  1769,  also  sprang 
from  the  same  impulse.  The  proposition  that  in  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  the  distinction  should  be 
maintained  between  the  regenerate  and  unregener- 
ate,  and  that  the  church  must  be  composed  of  con- 
verted souls  only,  has  been  accepted  by  substantially 
all  evangelical  demoninations  since  that  time.  The 
great  doctrines  made  especially  prominent  in  this 


GREAT  RELIGIOUS  REVIVALS.  309 

religious  movement  were  those  required  to  meet  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  the  times,  viz. ,  the  sinful- 
ness of  sin,  the  necessity  of  conversion  and  justifica- 
tion by  faith  in  Christ  alone.  These  doctrines  were 
the  mighty  forces  wielded  by  the  leaders  of  that 
time,  and  resulted  in  the  recasting  of  the  religious 
opinions  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

"The  second  general  evangelistic  movement,  1797- 
18 10,  generally  called  the  revival  of  1800,  was  hardly 
less  important  as  a  factor  in  our  Christian  life  than 
its  predecessor.  It,  too,  followed  a  period  of  form- 
alism and  religious  barrenness.  It  was  the  epoch 
of  French  infidelity  and  of  Paine 's  "Age  of  Reason," 
from  which  this  revival  emancipated  America 
while  France  was  left  a  spiritual  wreck.  Up  to 
this  time  almost  nothing  had  been  done  in  the  line 
of  foreign  missions,  and  there  were  hardly  any  per- 
manent institutions  of  a  national  character  for  the 
spread  of  the  gospel  apart  from  the  churches  and 
three  or  four  colleges.  From  this  movement  sprang, 
as  by  magic,  nearly  all  the  great  national  religious 
institutions  of  to-day.  The  "Plan  of  Union"  in 
1 80 1  to  evangelize  New  Connecticut — Andover  Sem- 
inary in  1808  to  provide  trained  pastors;  the  Amer- 
ican Board,  representing  two  or  three  denomina- 
tions, in  1 801;  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union,  1814;  the  American  Education  Society,  1815; 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Missionary  Society,  in 
1819;  the  Yale  Theological  Department,  in  1822; 
American  Temperance  Society,  in  1826;  American 
Home  Missionary  Society,  1830;  East  Windsor 
Theological  Seminary,  in  1833.  Here,  again,  all 
religious  bodies  were  equally  enriched  and  enlarged 
by    the    stupendous    impulse    given    to    religious 


310  GREAT  RELIGIOUS  REVIVALS. 

thought  and  activity  by  this  revival.  The  leading 
characteristic  of  this  movement,  so  far  as  doctrines 
were  concerned,  was  the  sovereignty  of  God.  The 
success  of  the  colonies  in  the  Revolutionary  war,  the 
establishment  of  national  independence,  the  awaken- 
ing forces  of  material  and  industrial  development, 
together  with  the  prevailing  rationalistic  and  athe- 
istic influence  of  France,  had  produced  a  spirit  of 
pride  and  self-sufficiency  which  was  hostile  to  the 
authority  of  God,  and,  of  course,  antagonistic  to  the 
gospel.  To  meet  this  state  of  the  public  mind, 
evangelistic  leaders  were  naturally  led  to  lay  special 
emphasis  upon  the  absolute  and  eternal  dominion  of 
God,  as  the  infinitely  wise  and  benevolent  Ruler  of 
the  universe,  and  man  as  His  subject,  fallen,  de- 
pendent, guilty,  to  whom  pardon  was  offered.  Here 
was  found  the  divine  corrective  of  the  perils  which 
were  threatening  to  overwhelm  the  country  in  barren 
and  self-destructive  materialism. 

"The  third  great  movement  was  in  1830- 1840. 
The  tendency  of  the  human  mind  is  to  grasp  certain 
truths  which  have  proved  specially  effective  in  one 
set  of  circumstances  and  press  them  into  service 
under  different  circumstances,  to  the  neglect  of 
other  truths.  Thus  the  severity  of  God,  which  had 
needed  such  peculiar  emphasis  in  1800,  came  to  be 
urged  to  the  exclusion  of  those  truths  which  touch 
the  freedom  and  responsibility  of  man.  When, 
therefore,  this  third  revival  period  began,  the  truths 
most  needed  were  the  freedom  of  the  will,  the  nature 
of  the  moral  law,  the  ability  and,  therefore,  the 
absolute  obligation  of  man  to  obey  God  and  make 
himself  a  new  heart.  Accordingly,  these  were  the 
mighty  weapons  which  were  wielded  by  the  great 


GREAT  RELIGIOUS  REVIVALS.  311 

leaders,  Finney,  Nettleton,  Albert  Barnes  and 
others,  in  the  revival  of  that  period,  '^hus  a  counter 
corrective  was  administered  which  tended  not  only 
to  correct  and  convert  vast  multitudes  of  souls,  but 
also  to  establish  the  scriptural  balance  of  truth. 

"The  fourth  pentecostal  season,  which  may  be 
called  national  in  its  scope,  was  in  1857-9.  At  that 
time  inordinate  worldliness,  the  passion  for  gain  and 
luxury,  had  been  taking  possession  of  the  people. 
The  spirit  of  reckless  speculation  and  other  immoral 
methods  of  gratifying  material  ambition  had  over- 
reached itself  and  plunged  the  nation  into  a  financial 
panic.  The  Divine  Spirit  seized  this  state  of  things 
to  convict  men  of  their  sins.  The  result  was  a  great 
turning  to  God  all  over  the  land.  In  this  awakening 
no  great  leaders  seem  to  stand  out  pre-eminent.  But 
the  plain  lessons  of  the  revival  are  God's  rebuke  of 
worldliness,  the  fact  that  it  is  better  to  be  righteous 
than  to  be  rich,  and  that  nations,  like  individuals,  are 
in  His  hands. 

"The  latest  evangelistic  movements  which  are 
meeting  this  new  era  and  are  destined  to  be  as  help- 
ful to  American  Christianity  as  any  preceding  ones 
are  those  under  the  present  leadership  of  men  like 
Messrs.  Moody  and  Mills  and  their  confreres.  These 
revivals,  though  perhaps  lacking  the  tremendous 
seriousness  and  profundity  of  conviction  which  came 
from  the  Calvinist  preachers  dwelling  on  the  nature 
and  attributes  of  God,  nevertheless  exhibit  a  more 
truly  balanced  Gospel  than  any  preceding  ones. 
They  announce  pre-eminently  a  Gospel  of  hope. 
They  emphasize  the  love  of  God,  the  sufficiency  of 
Christ,  the  guilt  and  unreason  of  sin,  the  privilege 
of  serving  Christ  and  the  duty  of  immediate  sur- 


812  GREAT  RELIGIOUS  REVIVALS. 

render.  If  men  said,  'Is  not  the  Gospel  being  over- 
grown?' They  said,  'No,  that  cannot  be.'  If 
they  said,  'Is  the  doctrine  broad  enough  and  deep 
enough  to  lead  the  progress  of  the  race  in  all  stages 
of  its  development  and  be  the  text-book  of  religious 
teaching  to  the  end  of  time?'  " 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


REVIVAL  SERMON. 

Delivered  at   Cleveland,  Ohio,  October   5th,   1879, 

and  considered  by  many  to  be  one  among 

Mr,  Moody's  best  efforts. 

I  have  selected  to-day  a  subject  rather  than  a 
text.  We  have  come  to  this  city  to  preach  Christ, 
and  I  want  to  commence  the  services  by  just  asking 
this  congregation  what  Christ  is  to  you.  And  now 
if  we  can  get  right  home  to  ourselves  to  begin  with, 
we  will  save  a  good  deal  of  time.  One  of  the  most 
difficult  things  we  have  in  preaching  the  gospel  is 
to  get  people  to  hear  for  themselves.  They  are 
willing  to  hear  for  other  people.  I  once  read  of  a 
colored  minister  Who  said  that  a  good  many  of  his 
congregation  would  be  lost  because  they  were  too 
generous ;  and  the  way  he  explained  it  was  that  they 
were  so  very  generous  with  the  sermon  that  they 
generally  gave  the  sermon  to  their  friends  and 
neighbors,  and  did  not  take  it  home  to  themselves. 
And  there  are  a  great  many  white  people,  I  think, 
who  are  just  as  generous  as  the  colored  people.  They 
are  always  generous  with  the  sermon.  They  are 
willing  to  give  it  to  any  one.  It  is  always  good  for 
some  one  else.  They  are  willing  to  lend  their  ears 
for  some  one  else,  but  it  is  very  hard  for  them  to 
take  it  home  to  themselves. 

313 


314  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

Now,  to-day,  we  want,  if  possible,  to  have  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  this  congregation  ask  him- 
self this  question,  "What  is  Christ  to  me?"  Not  to 
ny  neighbor,  not  to  the  world,  but  what  is  He  to 
me?  Who  is  He  and  what  is  He?  I  wish  I  could 
just  lodge  the  subject  right  into  your  hearts  to  begin 
with.  Now,  don't  think  that  will  be  good  for  some 
one  behind  you.  Don't  pass  the  text  over  your 
shoulder  to  some  one  back  of  you ;  he  will  pass  it  to 
some  one  behind  him,  as  is  often  done;  pass  it  along 
out  doors  and  away  it  goes,  they  forget  all  about  the 
text,  the  sermon  and  everything. 

Now,  let  the  question  come  to  each  one,  "What  is 
Jesus  Christ  to  me?"  I  would  like  to  tell  you  what 
He  has  been  to  me  since  I  have  known  Him.  And  I 
think  if  any  man  here  to-day  wants  to  know  Christ, 
he  must  first  know  Him  as  a  Savior.  ' '  His  name  shall 
be  called  Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  His  people  from 
their  sins. "  It  is  the  only  name  given  under  heaven 
— it  cannot  be  said  of  any  other  man ;  it  is  not  said  of 
Moses;  it  is  not  said  of  Elijah;  it  is  not  said  of  the 
prophets  or  patriarchs  or  apostles  that  they  shall  save 
men — not  any  other  name  among  men  under  heaven 
that  can  save  the  sinner,  but  the  name  of  Jesus. 

And  if  we  are  to  know  Him  as  our  Redeemer, 
and  if  we  are  to  know  Him  as  our  Deliverer,  and  if 
we  are  to  know  Him  as  our  Shepherd,  and  our  great 
High  Priest,  and  our  Prophet,  and  our  King,  we 
must  first  know  Him  as  our  Savior.  We  must  meet 
Him  on  the  cross  first.  We  must  see  him  at  Cal- 
vary putting  away  sin,  and  when  we  have  seen  Him 
as  our  Savior,  then  we  go  on  and  He  unfolds  Him- 
self to  us,  and  we  see  Him  in  a  great  many  other 
liehts. 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  317 

Now  He  is  more  than  a  Savior.  I  might  see  a  man 
drowning.  I  might  plunge  into  the  stream  and  res- 
cue that  man.  I  might  save  the  man  from  drowning, 
but  then  I  would  leave  him  there  on  the  banks,  and 
he  would  have  to  make  the  rest  of  the  journey  of 
life  without  me.  But  the  Son  of  God  is  more  than 
a  Savior.  After  He  has  saved.  He  not  only  is  with 
us,  but  He  delivers  us  from  the  power  of  sin.  He 
is  a  deliverer  from  sin.  I  believe  there  are  a  great 
many  people  who  have  gone  to  Calvary.  They 
have  seen  Christ  as  their  Savior,  but  they  forget 
that  He  is  a  deliverer,  and  wants  to  deliver  them 
from  the  power  of  sin.  I  don't  believe  that  He 
comes  down  here  and  pardons  us  and  then  leaves  us 
in  prison.  I  don't  believe  He  comes  down  here  and 
snaps  the  fetters  and  then  leaves  us  in  the  bondage. 
When  the  children  of  Israel  were  put  behind  the 
blood,  down  there  in  Goshen,  God  said,  "When  I 
see  the  blood,  I  will  pass  over  you."  The  blood 
was  their  savior,  the  blood  was  their  salvation.  But 
then  He  did  something  more  when  He  took  them  out 
of  Goshen,  and  when  He  took  them  out  of  Egypt, 
and  away  from  their  taskmakers,  and  out  of  the  land 
of  bondage.     Then  He  was  their  deliverer. 

When  they  came  to  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  moun- 
tains were  on  each  side  of  them,  and  Pharaoh  with 
his  hosts  coming  on  in  the  rear,  and  the  Red  Sea 
before  them — then  it  was  that  they  wanted  a  deliv- 
erer. And  I  venture  to  say  a  good  many  of  the 
children  of  God  have  known  what  it  is  to  come  to 
the  Red  Sea.  You  have  known  what  it  was  to  be 
where  you  could  only  look  up  and  cry  to  God  to 
deliver  you.  You  could  not  turn  to  the  right ;  you 
could  not  turn  to  the  left ;  you  could  not  turn  back ; 


318  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

and  the  Almighty  God  has  come  and  opened  the  Red 
Sea,  and  you  have  passed  over  dry  shod. 

But  when  He  delivered  them  from  the  hands  of 
the  king  and  from  their  taskmakers,  and  brought 
them  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  and  brought 
them  through  the  Red  Sea,  He  became  something 
else  to  them ;  He  became  then  their  way. 

Now,  you  very  often  hear  people  say,  "I  don't 
know  as  I  will  become  a  Christian.  I  don't  know 
really  what  church  to  belong  to. ' '  They  will  give 
that  as  an  excuse.  I  have  heard  more  men  give 
that  as  an  excuse,  than  anything  else.  They  say 
there  are  so  many  different  denominations  now,  and 
there  are  so  many  different  churches,  that  they 
don't  know  what  to  believe.  I  am  very  thankful 
that  the  Lord  has  not  left  us  in  darkness  about  that 
at  all.  It  is  no  excuse  at  all.  A  man  can't  stand  up 
at  the  door  of  heaven  and  say,  "I  didn't  become  a 
Christian  because  I  did  not  know  the  way." 

Now,  people  say  there  are  so  many  denomina- 
tions. "There  are  the  Methodists.  John  Wesley 
was  a  little  nearer  right  than  the  rest  of  you.  I 
will  join  the  Methodists. "  Then  there  are  our  good 
Baptist  brethren.  They  say  their  way  is  the  best 
way.  "You  had  better  be  immersed  and  come  in 
through  our  door. ' ' 

And  there  is  our  Episcopal  brother.  He  says,  "If 
you  want  to  come  into  the  true  apostolic  church,  you 
have  got  to  join  the  Episcopal  Church. " 

And  up  steps  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  says,  "If  yon 
want  to  come  into  the  true  apostolic  church,  you 
have  got  to  become  a  Roman  Catholic." 

And  then  there  are  the   Presbyterians,  and  they 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  319 

tell  you  that  John  Calvin  is  better  than  any  of  them, 
and  you  must  go  the  Calvin  way. 

And  so  they  say  there  are  so  many  different  de- 
nominations, so  many  different  ways,  that  they  don't 
know  what  church  to  join. 

Now,  my  friend?,  listen  to  what  the  Son  of  God 
says:  "I  am  the  way."  And  if  I  follow  Hini  I 
will  be  in  the  right  church ;  He  will  not  lead  me 
into  error:  He  will  not  lead  me  into  darkness;  He 
leads  out  of  bondage.  He  leads  into  liberty,  and 
into  light,  and  He  is  the  only  man  who  ever  trod 
on  this  earth  that  it  is  safe  to  follow  in  all  things. 
If  I  follow  any  man  but  Jesus  Christ,  I  will  get  into 
darkness  and  bondage.  If  I  follow  the  isms  of  the 
day  and  nothing  else,  they  will  lead  me  out  into 
black  darkness.  But  if  I  follow  the  Son  of  God,  He 
leads  me  into  life  and  light  immortal  out  of  dark- 
ness. 

As  I  walked  through  this  hall  yesterday  morning, 
I  stood  and  looked  up  there  and  I  saw  a  text,  and  I 
said,  "That  is  a  good  text  for  me."  It  says,  "I  am 
the  way."  There  is  life  in  those  words.  "I  am 
the  way,"  says  the  Son  of  God.  Follow  Him  and 
you  will  be  in  the  right  church.  And  when  a  man 
is  willing  to  bow  his  will  to  God's  will  and  say, 
"Lord  Jesus,  I  am  willing  to  follow  Thee,  to  receive 
Thee,"  then  he  will  be  in  the  right  church;  there 
will  be  no  trouble  then.  He  submits  his  will  to 
God's  will  and  submits  his  way  to  God's  way,  and 
takes  God's  way. 

You  know  that  God  knows  a  great  deal  more 
about  this  earth  than  you  and  I  do.  God  knew  a 
great  deal  more  about  the  pitfalls  in  the  wilderness, 
and  knew  all  about  that  perilous  way  when  He  led 


320  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

the  children  of  Israel.  He  led  them  by  a  pillar  of 
fire  by  night  and  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day ;  and  all 
they  had  to  do  was  to  keep  their  eye  on  that  cloud. 
When  the  cloud  moved,  they  moved;  when  the 
cloud  rested,  they  rested. 

Now,  all  we  have  got  to  do  is  to  keep  our  eye  on 
the  Master.  Follow  Him.  He  don't  ask  us  to  go 
where  He  has  not  gone  Himself.  He  don't  go 
around  and  drive  you  and  me;  but  He  says,  "Fol- 
low thou  Me."  And  if  a  man  will  become  His  dis- 
ciple and  follows  in  His  path,  he  may  put  his  feet 
right  in  His  footprints  and  follow  Him. 

You  know  out  on  the  frontiers  you  will  find  there 
the  Indian  trail ;  and  I  am  told  by  some  of  those 
men  who  have  been  in  that  country  there,  that  even 
over  the  Rocky  Mountains  it  looks  as  though  only 
one  man  had  trod  that  path.  The  chief  goes  on 
before,  and  the  rest  follow  and  put  their  feet  right 
in  the  foot-prints  of  the  chief.  So  the  Captain  of 
our  salvation  has  gone,  before  in  the  path,  and  if  I 
follow  Him  I  will  have  the  life  and  the  peace  that  is 
promised  to  every  child  of  God. 

But  then  He  is  more  than  the  way.  You  know 
He  might  be  the  way,  and  the  way  might  be  very 
dark,  but  He  says,  "I  am  the  light  of  life,  and  if  any 
man  follow  Me,  he  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but 
shall  have  the  light  of  life." 

Now,  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  to  be  in  darkness 
while  following  Jesus  Christ.  Why?  Because  He 
is  the  light  of  the  world.  What  that  the  sun  is  in 
yonder  heavens  to  the  solar  system,  so  Christ  is  to 
the  spiritual  world.  There  is  a  picture  in  some  of 
your  homes — if  a  man  should  giye  it  to  me,  I  don't 
know  what  I  would  do  with  it;  I  would  have  to  put 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  321 

it  up  the  wrong  way,  the  face  toward  the  wall.  I 
don't  know  what  the  artist  was  thinking  about  when 
he  got  that  picture  up.  It  is  a  beautiful  work  of 
art,  a  beautiful  steel  engraving,  and  represents 
Jesus  Christ  standing  at  the  door  of  a  man's  cottage 
with  a  lantern  in  His  hand,  knocking.  What  does 
Christ  want  with  a  lantern?  You  might  as  well 
hold  a  lantern  to  the  sun.  He  says,  "I  am  the  light 
of  the  world."  What  we  want  is  to  keep  our  eye 
right  upon  Him.     He  will  give  us  light. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  man  being  in  darkness 
that  is  following  Him.  If  there  is  a  man  or  woman  in 
this  audience  to-day  that  is  in  darkness  about  spirit- 
ual things,  it  is  because  they  have  got  away  from 
Him ;  it  is  because  they  have  not  followed  Him ;  it 
is  because  they  have  not  got  their  eye  upon  Him. 
That  is  what  brings  darkness,  and  what  He  wants  is 
to  have  each  one  of  us  just  to  keep  our  eye  upon 
Him  and  follow  Him. 

But  then  I  can  imagine  I  hear  some  of  you  say, 
"If  you  had  the  trouble  I  have  had,  you  would  not 
talk  in  that  way.  If  you  were  in  my  condition  you 
would  not  talk  in  that  way. ' '  I  remember  during 
our  war,  I  was  attending  a  meeting ;  it  was  the  first 
year  of  the  war.  Our  armies  had  been  repulsed  in 
the  West;  had  been  repulsed  in  the  East,  and  it 
looked  very  dark.  It  looked  as  if  this  republic  was 
going  to  pieces.  Every  one  that  got  up  to  speak  at 
that  meeting  had  his  harp  upon  the  willow.  It  was 
a  doleful  meeting.  But  at  last  an  old  man  got  up ; 
he  had  a  beautiful  white  beard,  and  he  gave  us 
young  men  a  lecture.  Says  he,  "You  don't  talk 
like  the  children  of  light,  don't  talk  like  the  sons  of 
the  King.     We  belong  to  the  kingdom  of  God," 


322  REVIVAL   SERMON. 

Says  he,  "There  is  no  darkness  there.  If  it  happens 
to  be  dark  right  around  you,  it  is  light  somewhere 
else.  If  it  is  dark  down  here,  look  up;  there  is  the 
light.  Our  home  is  up  there. ' '  After  rebuking  us 
for  our  want  of  faith  and  our  finding  fault,  he  said 
he  had  just  come  from  the  East;  that  he  had  been 
induced  by  some  friends  to  go  to  one  of  the  Eastern 
mountain  peaks  to  see  the  sunrise.  He  said  he 
went  to  the  half-way  house  and  made  arrangements 
with  the  landlord  to  take  him  up  before  daybreak, 
to  get  into  the  mountain  to  see  the  sunrise.  The 
guide  went  before,  holding  the  lantern.  He  said 
they  had  not  been  gone  a  great  while  before  a 
storm  came  up,  a.nd  it  began  to  thunder,  began  to 
rain,  and  he  said  to  the  guide,  "The  storm  will  pre- 
vent my  seeing  the  sunrise  this  morning,  and  you 
had  better  take  me  back."  The  guide  smiled  and 
said,  "I  think  we  will  get  above  this  storm."  And 
sure  enough  we  got  above  the  clouds  and  the  storm. 
On  the  mountain  peak  it  was  as  calm  as  any  sum- 
mer evening  in  his  life.  As  he  looked  down  into  the 
clouds,  he  saw  the  lightning  playing  up  and  down 
the  valley,  but  he  said  it  was  all  calm  on  the  moun- 
tain peak,  and  turning  to  us,  he  said: 

"Young  men,  if  it  is  dark  in  the  valley,  look 
higher  up ;  climb  a  little  higher  up  and  get  on  the 
mountain  peak."  And  as  the  highest  mountain 
peaks  catch  the  first  rays  of  the  morning  sun,  so 
those  who  live  nearest  to  heaven,  nearest  to  Christ, 
get  the  first  news  from  heaven.  It  is  the  privilege 
of  every  child  of  God  to  walk  in  an  unclouded  sun, 
in  perpetual  light.  I  believe  it  has  done  more  to 
retard  the  cause  of  Christ  and  Christianity,  than  any 
one  thing,  our  being  so  despondent,  looking  on  the 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  323 

dark  side,  leaving  the  Author  of  life,  light,  and 
going  the  by-ways  with  our  heads  down  like  a  bul- 
rush. Let  us  remember,  my  friends,  that  Christ  is 
the  light  of  the  world.  If  we  follow  Him  we  shall 
not  be  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of  life. 
It  is  said  of  some  men  away  out  on  the  frontier,  that 
when  they  want  to  go  off  in  the  wilderness  hunting, 
where  there  is  no  road  or  path,  they  take  an  ax  or 
hatchet,  and  they  cut  off  the  bark  of  a  tree,  and  they 
call  that  blazing  the  way.  So  the  Son  of  God  has 
been  down  in  this  dark  world.  He  has  "blazed  the 
way,"  led  captivity  captive.  He  has  traveled  this 
wilderness  and  gone  up  on  high.  All  we  have  to 
do  is  to  follow  Him.  If  we  keep  our  eye  right  on 
Him,  we  will  have  light  all  the  while. 

I  remember  when  I  was  a  boy,  I  used  to  try  to 
walk  across  a  field  after  the  snow  had  fallen,  and 
try  to  make  a  straight  path ;  and  as  long  as  I  kept 
my  eye  on  a  point  at  the  other  side  of  the  field,  I 
could  make  a  straight  path,  but  if  I  looked  over  my 
shoulder  to  see  if  I  was  walking  straight,  I  would 
always  walk  crooked — always.  And  where  I  find 
people  turning  around  to  see  how  others  walk,  they 
always  walk  crooked.  But  if  you  want  to  walk 
straight  through  this  world,  keep  your  eye  on  the 
Captain  of  your  salvation,  who  has  gone  with  you 
in  the  vale.  Just  keep  your  eye  on  Him,  and  you 
will  have  peace  and  lights 

I  remember  when  I  was  a  little  boy,  I  used  to  try 
to  catch  my  shadow.  I  used  to  try  to  see  it.  I 
could  not  jump  over  my  head.  I  ran  and  jumped, 
but  my  head  always  kept  just  so  far  ahead  of  me. 
I  never  could  catch  my  shadow,  but  I  remember 
I  was  running  with  my  face  toward  the  sun,  and  I 


324  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

looked  over  my  shoulder  and  I  found  my  shadow 
coming  after  me. 

And  I  find  since  I  became  a  Christian  that  if  I 
keep  my  eye  on  the  Son  of  Righteousne'ss,  peace  and 
light  and  joy  and  everything  follows  in  the  train; 
but  if  I  get  my  eye  off  Him,  I  always  get  in  dark- 
ness and  trouble.  So  if  you  want  to  keep  in  the 
light,  keep  your  eye  fixed  on  the  Son  of  Righteous- 
ness and  follow  Him. 

Now,  we  have  Him  as, our  Savior;  we  have  Him 
as  our  Deliverer;  we  have  Him  as  our  Way;  we 
have  Him  as  our  Truth,  because  He  is  the  truth. 
If  you  want  to  know  what  is  truth,  Christ  is  the 
embodiment  of  truth ;  if  you  want  to  know  the  truth, 
know  Him.  There  is  no  error  in  Him.  He  taught 
no  false  doctrine.  He  taught  truth.  And  if  you  want 
to  know  the  truth,  know  Him.  He  says,  "I  am  the 
truth,"  He  is  the  very  embodiment  of  it.  And  if 
people  say,  "But  I  have  not  got  life,  I  have  not  got 
spiritual  power."  Well,  He  is  the  life,  and  if  you 
have  not  got  spiritual  power,  it  is  because  you  have 
not  got  enough  of  Christ.  If  you  want  spiritual  life 
more  abundantly,  let  Christ  come  into  3^our  heart 
and  reign  without  a  rival.  He  is  the  life  of  the 
world,  and  when  man  goes  away  from  Him,  he  goes 
away  from  the  life  and  power. 

But  then  He  is  something  else.  Perhaps  some  of 
you  have  come  to  a  fork  in  the  road  sometimes,  and 
you  have  not  known  just  which  way  to  turn.  I  was 
going  to  a  little  town  last  month  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel, and  I  came  over  a  bridge,  and  I  came  to  a  road 
that  ran  right  across  mine,  and  which  way  to  turn  I 
did  not  know.  There  was  no  guide-post  there,  and 
I  did  not  know  which  way  to  go.     Well,  I  am  talk- 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  325 

ing,  perhaps,  to  a  good  many  in  this  audience  that 
have  come  to  such  a  fork  in  their  spiritual  life. 
You  have  come  to  a  place  where  you  have  not  known 
which  way  to  turn.  Well,  right  in  here  we  have 
read  that  Christ  is  a  teacher.  God  sent  Him  down 
to  be  a  teacher,  to  be  our  counsellor,  and  to  be  our 
guide,  and  if  we  will  have  Him,  He  will  guide  us 
and  teach  us  the  right  thing.  He  did  not  teach  as 
the  scribes  did ;  He  taught  with  the  authority  God 
had  given  Him.  He  did  not  teach  opinions.  Men 
come  along  now,  and  they  teach  their  opinions.  I 
would  rather  have  "Thus  saith  the  Lord"  than  all 
their  opinions.  It  is  not  what  man  says,  and  when 
He  teaches  us,  my  friends,  He  will  teach  us  the  right 
way.  Therefore,  we  want  to  take  Him  as  our 
teacher — our  guide.  I  have  never  known  a  man,  I 
don't  care  how  skeptical  he  has  been,  if  he  is  will- 
ing to  let  the  Lord  teach  him  the  way,  but  what  the 
Lord  has  taught  him.  If  a  skeptic  has  come  in  here 
to-day,  just  out  of  curiosity,  I  would  like  to  get  his 
ear  for  about  five  minutes ;  I  would  like  to  say  to 
him  that  the  God  that  has  made  you  can  teach  you 
if  you  will  let  Him.  Infidels  are  so  conceited  that 
they  think  they  are  wiser  than  the  Almighty  God; 
they  are  not  willing  to  let  the  God  who  created  them 
teach  them.  They  forget  that  when  man  fell  in 
Eden  his  reason  fell  with  him.  They  forget  that 
the  God  of  heaven  and  earth  is  greater  than  their 
reason. 

I  was  in  a  little  town  in  Illinois  a  number  of  years 
ago,  when  I  first  commenced  to  work  for  the  Lord. 
I  could  not  preach,  but  got  up  a  liitle  meeting  and 
talk.  There  was  a  lady  came  to  me  just  as  the 
meeting  was  breaking  up,  and  says,  "Mr.  Moody,  I 


326  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

wish  you  would  come  and  see  my  husband  and  talk 
with  him  about  his  soul."  Well,  I  consented.  I 
saw  she  was  greatly  burdened.  I  went  to  take  down 
his  name.  She  gave  me  the  name,  and  I  said  to 
her,  "You  will  excuse  me;  I  can  not  go  to  see  that 
man."  She  says,  "Why  not?"  "Why,  he  is  a  Book 
infidel;  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  Eastern  colleges, 
and  I  am  a  mere  strippling — a  boy;  I  can't  go  to 
meet  him."  "Well,"  she  says,  "I  would  like  to 
have  you  go,  Mr.  Moody,  and  talk  to  him  about  his 
soul."  "Well,"  I  says,  "you  had  better  have  some 
one  older;  I  can't  meet  him  in  argument."  She 
says,  "It  is  not  argument  he  wants;  he  has  had 
enough  of  that ;  he  wants  some  one  to  invite  him  to 
Christ."  She  urged  so  hard,  I  went  down  to  see 
him.  I  went  into  his  office ;  I  shook  hands,  intro- 
duced myself,  and  after  I  did  so,  I  told  him  my 
errand.  He  laughed  at  me,  thought  I  had  come  on 
a  foolish  errand.  He  did  not  believe  in  Christ  or 
Christianity;  he  didn't  believe  in  the  Bible.  I 
talked  to  him  a  little  while,  and  brought  out  some 
of  his  infidel  views.  I  said,  "Judge,  I  will  be  hon- 
est with  you ;  I  can't  argue  with  you ;  I  cannot  meet 
you  in  argument,"  and  the  man  seemed  to  grow 
two  inches  right  off.  It  is  astonishing  how  these 
men  do  grow  when  they  find  somebody  they  can 
handle  in  argument.  I  said,  "I  can't  meet  you;  I 
will  be  frank  with  you."  He  had  been  one  of  our 
leading  men  ih  the  country,  and  I  knew  about  his 
intellect.  He  had  a  very  brilliant  mind.  He  had 
been  one  of  our  supreme  judges;  he  had  been  mayor 
of  the  city  he  lived  in,  had  been  a  member  of  the 
State  senate  a  good  many  years,  and  he  was  a  public 
man ;  and  I  said  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  bring 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  327 

forward  the  arguments  that  I  would  like  to,  and, 
therefore,  he  would  have  to  excuse  me,  and  I  says, 
"Judge,  there  is  just  one  favor  I  would  like  to  ask 
of  you."  Says  he,  "What  is  that?"  "When  you 
are  converted,  let  me  know."  "Well,"  says  he,  "I 
will  let  you  know  when  I  am  converted.  I  will 
grant  that  request" — with  a  good  deal  of  sarcasm. 
I  went  out  of  his  office,  heard  the  clerks  snickering 
when  I  went  out.  I  suppose  they  thought  I  had 
made  a  fool  of  myself. 

But  a  year  and  a  half  after  that  I  was  back  in  that 
city.  I  was  the  guest  of  a  friend,  and  while  I  was  in 
the  sitting-room,  a  servant  came  and  said  there  was  a 
man  in  the  parlor  that  wanted  to  see  me.  I  stepped 
into  the  parlor,  and  there  was  the  old  judge.  He  says, 
"When  I  saw  you  last  I  told  you  when  I  was  con- 
verted I  would  let  you  know.  I  have  come  to-day 
to  tell  you  I  have  been  converted. ' '  I  had  heard  it 
from  the  lips  of  others,  but  I  wanted  to  get  it  from 
his  own  lips.  Says  I,  "Judge,  I  wish  you  would 
tell  the  whole  story;  tell  all  about  it."  He  took  his 
seat,  and  he  says,  "Well,  I  will  tell  you;  my  wife 
and  children  had  gone  out  to  meeting  one  night,  and 
there  was  no  one  in  the  house  but  the  servant  and 
myself,  and  I  got  to  thinking. ' '  I  tell  you  it  is  a 
good  thing  to  get  men  to  thinking;  there  is  always 
hope  of  reaching  men  if  you  get  them  to  thinking, 
especially  in  America.  They  are  after  money,  and 
they  can't  stop  to  think.  They  are  on  the  dead 
run ;  if  you  can  stop  them  on  a  corner  and  get  their 
attention  five  minutes,  you  are  doing  well  in  this 
country.  And  he  got  to  thinking  and  reasoning 
with  himself — and  I  tell  you  it  is  a  good  thing  to  get 
a  man  to  reasoning  with  himself.     That  is  the  best 


328  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

kind  of  reasoning — and  he  said  to  himself,  "Well, 
now,  supposing  that  my  wife  and  my  children  are 
right  and  I  am  wrong ;  supposing  they  are  all  on  the 
way  to  heaven,  as  they  profess  to  think,  and  I  am 
on  my  way  to  hell.  Why,"  said  he,  "I  just  dis- 
missed that  thought  at  once."  He  said  he  did  not 
believe  there  was  a  hell.    . 

The  next  thought  came.  "Well,  judge,  do  j^-ou 
believe  that  there  is  a  God  that  created  you?" 
"Yes,"  he  said,  "I  believe  that.  This  world  never 
happened  by  chance.  Everything  in  this  world 
teaches  me  that  there  is  an  overruling  power,  and 
there  is  a  creator.  This  world  was  not  thrown  to- 
gether. There  must  have  been  a  creator. "  Then 
the  next  thought  came.  "If  there  is  a  creator,  and 
one  that  created  you,  the  one  that  created  you  could 
teach  you."  "Well,"  he  said,  "that  is  so.  The 
God  that  created  me  could  teach  me, "  and  he  smiled 
and  said,  "The  fact  was,  Mr.  Moody,  I  thought 
nobody  could  teach  me.  I  sat  there  by  the  fire.  I 
was  too  proud  to  get  down  on  my  knees.  I  said, 
'O,  God,  teach  me,'  "  It  was  an  honest  prayer. 
And  if  there  is  an  honest  infidel  here  to-day  who 
will  make  that  prayer  out  of  the  depths  of  his  heart, 
God  will  teach  him  more  in  five  minutes  than  all 
the  infidels  can  teach  him  in  twenty  years.  He 
will  teach  you  true  wisdom.  It  is  so  reasonable  that 
the  God  that  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
can  teach  mortal  men.  He  said,  God  began  to  teach 
him,  and  he  began  to  see  himself  in  a  different 
light.  He  had  been,  he  said,  a  very  righteous  man 
in  his  own  estimation.  He  thought  he  was  one  of 
the  best  men  that  ever  lived.  But  he  said  he  began 
to  see  himself  a  sinner.     That  was  something  new ; 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  329 

and  he  said  there  was  a  burden  right  here.  He  said 
he  had  never  felt  any  burden  there  before,  and  he 
said  things  began  to  look  very  dark.  Things  had 
always  looked  very  bright  before.  And  he  said  he 
thought  his  wife  might  come  home  and  see  that 
something  ailed  him — that  he  was  troubled.  So  he 
said  he  went  to  bed,  and  he  pretended  to  sleep ;  but 
he  did  not  sleep  a  wink  that  night;  but  before 
morning  he  began  to  pray,  "O  God,  save  me;  take 
away  this  burden  of  guilt ;  take  away  this  load  of 
sins ! ' ' 

But  he  said  he  didn't  believe  in  Jesus  Christ;  he 
didn't  want  any  day 's-man  between  him  and  God; 
didn't  want  any  mediator;  he  was  going  right 
straight  to  the  Father;  he  was  going  to  settle  the 
question  without  Christ. 

The  load  grew  heavier,  and  it  grew  darker  and 
darker.  He  said  when  the  morning  came  he  got  up 
and  dressed,  and  said  to  his  wife  he  was  not  feeling 
very  well;  he  would  not  stay  at  home  to  breakfast. 
He  wanted  to  get  out  of  the  way,  and  went  down 
to  his  office.  The  old  judge  kept  on  crying,  "O, 
God,  take  away  this  burden;  O,  God,  forgive  me;" 
he  had  waked  up  to  the  fact  that  he  wanted  forgive- 
ness like  other  people.  He  went  into  his  office. 
Men  came  to  see  him  on  business,  but  he  could  not 
do  any  business.  He  tried  to  tell  his  clerks  what  to 
do,  but  could  not  tell  them.  He  told  them  they 
might  take  a  holiday,  and  he  locked  the  door  of  his 
office  and  got  down  on  his  knees  and  cried,  "For 
Jesus  Christ's  sake,  take  away  this  load  of  sins." 
He  said  there  was  a  bundle  rolled  off  when  he  arose 
from  his  knees,  and  said  his  heart  was  as  light  as 
air.    Says  he,  "I  wonder  if  this  is  not  what  my  wife 


330  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

has  been  praying  for  these  years?  if  it  is  not  what 
the  Christians  call  conversion?  I  will  go  and  ask  the 
minister  where  my  wife  attends  church  if  I  ain't 
converted."  And  he  said  on  the  way  to  the  min- 
ister's house  a  text  of  Scripture  came  to  him  that 
his  mother  had  taught  him  forty  years  before.  O, 
mothers,  teach  your  children  the  word  of  God;  it 
may  spring  up  after  many  years ;  it  may  bear  fruit 
unto  life  eternal  after  you  are  dead  and  gone.  That 
text  of  Scripture  that  mother  taught  that  little  boy 
in  childhood  was:  "When  you  pray,  believe  you  will 
receive  what  you  ask  for,  and  you  have  it."  And 
he  said,  "I  have  asked  God  to  forgive  my  sins,  and 
I  am'  going  up  to  ask  the  minister  if  my  prayer  is 
answered.  I  believe  that  is  dishonoring  God.  I 
am  a  Christian. "  And  he  says,  "I  started  home." 
His  wife  saw  him  coming.  She  knew  how  he  went 
off,  and  thought  he  was  coming  home  sick ;  she  met 
him  at  the  door,  and  said  to  him,  "Are  you  sick?" 
"No,  I  have  been  converted."  He  says,  "Mr. 
Moody,  twenty-one  long  years  that  dear  wife  had 
prayed  for  me,  and  she  could  not  believe  her  ears 
when  I  told  her  I  was  converted.  She  said, 
'Come  into  the  drawing-room. '  I  knelt  down  and 
made  my  first  prayer  with  my  wife."  He  erected  a 
family  altar.  That  old  infidel  judge  said,  "Mr. 
Moody,  I  have  had  more  enjoyment  in  the  last  three 
months  than  in  all  the  rest  of  my  life  put  together. ' ' 
If  there  is  an  honest  skeptic  here  to-day,  let  God 
Almighty  be  your  teacher;  ask  Him  to  teach  you; 
ask  Him  to  give  you  light  beyond  the  grave ;  He 
has  got  the  power.  If  you  want  true  wisdom,  go  to 
Him.  He  will  open  your  darkened  understanding 
and  cause  you   to    understand    wonderful    things. 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  331 

When  I  have  been  willing  to  let  Him  teach  me,  I 
have  had  perfect  peace.  But  whenever  I  have  gone 
against  His  counsel  and  against  His  teachings,  it 
brought  me  to  captivity;  it  has  brought  me  into 
bondage  and  into  darkness.  When  Nicodemus  was 
willing  to  let  that  rabbi  teach  him,  he  taught  him 
true  wisdom,  taught  him  the  doctrine  of  the  new 
birth,  taught  him  that  he  must  be  born  again. 

I  might  go  on  and  speak  of  him  as  a  shepherd.  I 
might  have  known  him  now  upwards  of  twenty 
years  as  a  shepherd.  He  has  carried  my  burdens  for 
me.  Oh,  it  is  so  sweet  to  know  that  you  have  one 
to  whom  you  can  go  and  tell  all  your  sorrows ;  you 
can  roll  your  burdens  at  his  feet.  Blessed  privilege 
we  have,  dear  friends,  to  go  to  Him  with  all  our  bur- 
dens and  our  sorrows.  Surely,  He  hath  borne  our 
griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows.  Think  of  Christ  as 
a  burden-bearer;  what  would  this  world  do  without 
Him.     How  dark  the  grave  would  be  without  Him. 

I  remember  making  a  remark  a  few  years  ago  that 
there  was  no  burden  we  had  but  that  Christ  would 
carry  it  for  us  if  we  would  let  Him.  At  the  close 
of  the  meeting  a  lady  pushed  her  way  through  the 
crowd  and  came  up  to  me  and  said:  "Mr.  Moody, 
if  you  had  the  burden  I  have  got  you  could  not  have 
said  what  you  did  to-day."  "Perhaps  not,"  I  said. 
"But  have  you  a  burden  too  great  for  Christ  to 
carry?"  "Well,"  she  said,  "I  would  not  say  it  was 
too  great  for  Christ  to  carry."  But  she  said,  "I 
can't  leave  it  with  Him."  "Well,  it  is  your  fault, 
because  He  tells  you  to  do  it.  He  commands  you  to 
cast  your  care  upon  Him,  for  He  careth  for  you,  for 
he  numbers  the  very  hairs  of  your  head,  and  a  spar- 
row can't  fall  to  the  ground  without  His  knowledge. 


332  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

Do  you  think  He  will  not  help  you  in  the  time  of 
trouble,  that  He  will  not  bear  your  burden  and 
carry  your  sorrow  if  you  will  let  Him?"  "Well," 
she  said,  "just  hear  me,  sir.  I  am  the  mother  of 
one  child,  and  that  is  a  wanderer.  For  years  I 
have  not  heard  from  him.  Look  at  these  hairs,  they 
are  untimely  gfray.  I  will  soon  go  down  to  my 
grave.  It  is  crushing  me  down  to  the  grave." 
".Well,"  I  said,  "my  good  woman,  don't  you  know 
chat  Jesus  Christ  knows  where  your  child  is,  and 
don't  you  know  that  you  can  reach  him  this  very 
hour  by  the  way  of  the  throne — that  the  spirit  of 
God  will  search  him  out,  and  that  boy  may  be  con- 
victed and  converted  and  brought  home  in  answer 
to  prayer?  Go  tell  it  out  to  Christ.  Go  pour  out 
your  heart  to  Him.  Tell  Him  all  your  sorrows. ' ' 
I  told  that  lady  of  a  case  in  Indiana. 

A  boy  went  from  the  southern  part  of  Indiana 
to  Chicago.  He  was  a  moral  young  man^— and  a 
great  many  parents  are  satisfied  if  their  children  are 
moral ;  but  I  tell  you  the  temptations  of  city  life  are 
too  much  for  any  man  who  has  not  got  Christ  as  a 
keeper.  He  will  be  swept  away  in  the  time  of 
temptation.  This  young  man  had  not  been  in  Chi- 
cago a  great  many  months  when  a  neighbor  came  up 
to  Chicago  on  business,  and  found  that  young  man 
reeling  through  the  streets  drunk.  When  he  went 
back  he  thought  he  ought  to  tell  that  father,  but  he 
knew  it  would  about  break  his  heart,  and  then  he 
felt  as  though  he  could  not  do  it.  He  kept  it  locked 
up  in  his  heart  for  some  time,  but  one  day  he 
thought  if  that  boy  was  his,  and  was  becoming  a 
drimkard,  he  would  want  to  know  it.  And  so  he 
took  that  father  off  to  one  side,  one  dav,  and  told 


S    So 


REVIVAL  SERMON.  335 

him  what  he  had  seen  in  Chicago.  It  was  a  terrible 
blow  to  the  father.  He  went  home  that  night,  and 
after  the  children  had  been  put  to  bed,  and  the  wife 
was  sitting  by  the  table  at  work,  and  he  said  to  her, 
"Wife,  I  have  got  some  very  bad  news  from  Chi- 
cago to-day. "  The  wife  dropped  her  work  and  said, 
' '  Pray,  tell  me  what  it  can  be?"  '  'Our  boy  was  seen 
on  the  streets  of  Chicago  by  Neighbor  So-and-So 
drunk."  They  did  not  sleep  that  night.  They 
spent  that  night  taking  that  burden  away  to  Jesus 
Christ.  They  took  that  wandering  boy  in  the  arms 
of  their  faith  to  the  Son  of  God,  pleading  that  their 
boy  might  be  saved,  and  that  he  might  not  go  down 
to  a  drunkard's  grave.  About  daybreak  the  mother 
said,  "I  don't  know  where,  I  don't  know  when,  I 
don't  know  how  my  boy  is  to  be  saved ;  but  God  has 
given  me  faith  to  believe  that  my  boy  is  to  become 
a  Christian."  Her  faith  rested  there.  She  carried 
that  burden  to  the  Son  of  God,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
week  that  boy  came  home,  and  the  first  thing  he 
said  as  he  crossed  the  threshold  was,  "Mother,  I 
have  come  home  to  ask  you  to  pray  for  me,"  and  it 
was  found  that  the  very  night  the  father  and  the 
mother  were  praying  God  to  touch  the  heart  of  their 
boy,  he  had  become  converted. 

O,  mothers,  pray  for  your  boys;  fathers,  cry 
mightily  to  God  for  the  children  He  has  given  you. 

I  wish  I  had  time  to  take  Him  up  as  our  shepherd, 
I  would  like  to  take  Him  up  as  our  Redeemer,  as 
our  sanctification,  as  our  justification,  as  our  all  in 
all.  I  could  not  tell  you  in  one  short  hour  what 
Christ  is.  It  will  take  all  eternity  to  tell  you  what 
Christ  is.  I  want  to  stand  here  to-day  to  tell  you 
that  He  is  the  best  friend  the  sinner  has  got.  He  is 
19 


336  REVIVAL  SERMON. 

just  the  friend  every  man  needs  here.  If  you  take 
Him  to  be  your  Savior,  your  way,  your  truth,  your 
life,  your  shepherd,  your  burden-bearer,  He  will  be 
true  to  you,  and  He  will  carry  all  your  sins,  and  all 
your  burdens,  and  all  your  sorrows. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


FAITH. 

SERMON. 

Text. — Bring  him  unto  Me.    Mark  ix.  19. 

We  find  in  this  chapter  that  Christ  had  taken 
Peter,  James  and  John,  and  had  been  up  in  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration,  and  the  first  thing  that 
met  His  eye  as  He  came  down  from  that  holy  mount 
was  a  great  multitude  gathered  around  His  disciples 
and  rejoicing — the  enemies  of  Christ  rejoicing  over 
the  defeat  of  the  disciples;  and  when  He  made  in- 
quiry to  find  out  what  had  caused  the  discussion, 
one  of  the  multitude  spoke  up  and  said,  "I  have 
brought  my  son  to  Thy  disciples  that  they  might  cast 
out  an  unclean  spirit,  and  they  could  not  doit." 
They  had  no  faith. 

Now  it  strikes  me  that  that  is  the  condition  of  the 
church  in  this  country  at  the  present  time.  We 
have  not  got  power  to  cast  out  these  devils.  1  be- 
lieve men  are  possessed  of  devils  now  as  much  as 
they  were  in  the  days  of  Christ.  I  think  this  rum 
devil  is  about  as  great  a  devil  as  they  had  in  the 
days  of  Christ.  And  you  will  find  a  good  many 
possessed  of  the  rum  devil.  And  then  this  infidel 
devil  is  as  bad  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Christ. 
These  unbelieving  devils  are  possessing  men,  and 
what  we  want  is  power  to  cast  them  out;  and  what 

337 


338  FAITH. 

we  want,  it  seems  to  me,  is  to  learn  this  lesson :  that 
if  we  have  failed  it  is  not  God's  fault,  but  it  is  our 
own  fault;  and  we  want  to  just  get  by  these  ob- 
stacles and  get  right  to  the  Master  Himself. 

Turn  to  Kings  and  you  will  find  that  in  the  days 
of  Elisha  he  saw  that  Shunammite  woman  coming, 
and  he  says  to  his  servant,  "Go  and  ask  her  if  it  is 
well  with  the  child  and  well  with  the  husband." 
And  she  said  it  was  well.  Elisha  could  not  under- 
stand it.  But  she  came  and  threw  herself  right  at 
his  feet,  and  it  was  revealed  unto  Elisha  what  the 
trouble  was.  The  child  was  dead ;  but  that  woman 
had  faith  and  believed  that  he  should  rise  again. 
There  is  faith  for  you !  So  he  said  to  his  servant, 
"Take  thy  staff,  and  go  and  lay  it  upon  the  child." 
And  they  tried  to  send  the  woman  away;  but  she 
said,  "As  the  Lord  liveth,  and  as  thy  soul  liveth,  I 
will  not  leave  thee!"  She  had  got  beyond  the  staff 
and  beyond  the  servant,  and  got  right  to  the  Master 
himself,  and  it  was  well  that  she  did,  because  the 
old  staff  did  not  raise  the  dead  child.  It  needed 
Elisha  himself,  and  that  woman  was  very  wise. 
And  what  we  want  is  to  learn  a  lesson  from  the 
Shunammite  woman;  but  if  the  disciples  can't  cast 
out  those  devils,  what  we  want  is  to  lift  our  eyes 
higher  up ;  to  lift  our  eyes  to  the  One  sitting  upon 
the  throne,  who  is  unchangeable,  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day  and  forever.  Christ  has  got  power ;  and. if 
the  church  will  only  have  faith  we  will  see  signs  and 
wonders  in  this  city.  The  Lord  is  wonderful  to 
save,  my  friends;  He  delights  to  save.  But  there 
is  one  thing  that  He  wants  among  His  people,  and 
that  is  faith.  Faith  can  do  most  anything  with 
Jesus  Christ.     When  He  was  down  here  faith  could 


FAITH.  339 

lead  Him  around  anywhere  and  could  get  him  to 
do  almost  anything.  And  what  we  want  in  the 
church  to-day  is  faith  to  believe  that  the  Son  of  God 
has  power  to  bless. 

When  these  disciples  failed,  I  can  imagine  they 
reasoned  something  like  this,  "Why,  it  is  a  pretty 
hard  case."  One  of  the  disciples  says,  "I  have 
asked  him  how  long  he  had  been  troubled  with  this 
deaf  and  dumb  spirit,  and  the  father  said  he  was 
born  so,  and  it  is  pretty  discouraging.  If  he  could 
only  hear  us,  why,  then  there  woiild  be  some  hope. 
If  he  could  only  speak  and  tell  us  how  he  feels, 
there  would  be  some  hope.  He  can't  hear  and  he 
can't  speak.  It  is  a  pretty  hopeless  case. ' '  But  see 
what  the  Master  said  when  He  came  down  from  that 
mount:  "Bring  him  unto  Me."  And  I  tell  you  if 
the  Master  tells  us  to  bring  our  friends  and  those 
whom  we  are  anxious  should  be  saved  to  Him,  let 
us  obey  His  command.  Let  us  bring  them  in  the 
arms  of  our  faith  and  lay  them  right  at  His  feet. 
But  there  is  one  thing  I  want  to  call  your  attention 
to.  That  father  got  the  "if"  in  the  wrong  place. 
He  says,  Lord,  if  Thou  canst  do  anything,  and  the 
Lord  just  corrected  him  and  put  the  "if"  in  the 
right  place.  "If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are 
possible;"  3^ou  don't  want  to  put  any  ifs  in  if  you 
are  going  to  bring  souls  to  Christ.  Don't  put  in  "if 
Thou  canst  do  anything. ' '  The  leper  we  read  about 
in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Luke  got  the  "if"  in  the  right 
place.  He  says,  "Lord,  if  Thou  wilt,  Thou  canst 
make  me  clean. "  That  pleased  the  Master.  He 
said,  "I  will;  be  thou  clean."  With  a  word  he 
cleansed  him.  But  this  father  got  the  "if"  in  the 
wrong  place — "If  Thou  canst    help  us,  we   want 


340  FAITH. 

help.  "  See  how  quick  he  could  help  him  when  he 
brought  him  to  the  Master.  As  he  came  the  devil 
tripped  him  up  on  the  way,  as  he  has  done  a  great 
many  times  since.  When  a  man  sets  his  face  to 
come  to  Christ,  the  devil  trips  him  up — throws  him 
down.  But  bear  in  mind,  devils,  and  disease  and 
death  are  to  obey  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God.  He 
spoke  and  that  unclean  spirit  came  out  of  him ;  and 
not  only  that,  He  told  him  to  come  back  no  more. 
I  tell  you,  if  the  Lord  sent  him  away  he  will  never 
come  back.  Some  people  are  afraid  if  men  are  con- 
veited  they  won't  hold  out.  But  when  the  Lord 
casts  out  those  devils,  and  gives  them  instructions 
never  to  come  back,  they  will  hold  out.  What  the 
Lord  does,  holds  through  eternity  itself.  What 
man  does  is  very  short  and  transitory,  but  when 
God  works  He  works  thoroughly.  He  gave  to  that 
devil  instructions  never  to  come  back  again,  and  he 
had  to  obey.  There  was  one  thing  that  the  devils 
had  to  do  when  Christ  was  here — and  He  is  here  now 
in  Spirit — and  that  was,  they  had  to  obey  Him. 

You  turn  to  the  5th  chapter  of  Mark,  and  you 
will  find  there  the  Son  of  God  had  power  over  devils, 
over  disease  and  death.  In  the  fifth  chapter  of 
Mark  you  will  find  three  incurable  diseases.  If 
they  had  them  now-a-days,  they  would  have  them 
in  some  incurable  hospital.  There  are  hospitals  now 
being  erected  in  some  parts  of  this  country,  and 
there  are  a  good  many  in  Europe,  for  the  incurable. 

But  there  were  no  incurables  when  Christ  was 
here.  He  was  a  match  for  every  case  they  brought 
to  Him.  Here,  in  this  fifth  chapter  of  Mark,  we 
read  of  a  man  who  was  possessed  of  devils;  he  had 
legions  of  them.     No  man  could  bind  him.     No  man 


FAITH.  341 

could  tame  him ;  for  they  had  often  bound  him  with 
fetters  and  chains,  but  the  chains  had  been  plucked 
asunder  by  him,  and  the  fetters  broken  in  pieces. 
They  had  clothed  him,  but  he  would  tear  the  clothes 
from  him,  and  they  could  not  keep  a  rag  on  his 
back;  there  he  was — a  maniac.  But  when  Christ 
met  him,  with  a  word  He  cast  out  those  unclean 
spirits ;  with  a  word  He  restored  him  back  to  his 
family.  He  said  to  him:  "Go  home  and  tell  your 
friends  what  great  things  the  Lord  has  done  for 
you."  And  he  went  back  and  began  to  publish  the 
great  things  the  Lord  had  done  for  him,  and  all  men 
marveled.  I  tell  you  there  will  be  some  marvel- 
ing in  this  city  when  God  begins  to  work.  That  is 
what  makes  men  marvel.  What  we  want  is  to  pray 
God  Almighty  to  come  and  work  in  this  city,  and 
cast  out  these  unclean  spirits.  And  we  read  a  little 
further  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Mark,  of  a  woman 
who  had  an  issue  of  blood  for  twelve  years.  She 
had  suffered  many  things  of  many  physicians;  grew 
worse  all  the  while.  When  men  are  running  to 
earthly  physicians  they  grow  worse  all  the  time. 
When  men  are  trying  to  patch  up  their  old  Adam- 
nature — trying  to  make  themselves  better,  they  are 
growing  worse  all  the  time.  When  men  are  trying 
to  save  themselves  and  work  out  their  own  salvation 
without  the  help  of  God — trying  to  work  out  this 
great  question,  they  are  all  the  time  making  them- 
selves worse.  Why,  this  woman  tried  many  physi- 
cians. Perhaps  she  had  been  down  to  Damascus 
and  tried  the  leading  physicians  there,  or  had  been 
up  to  Jerusalem  and  tried  the  leading  physicians 
there,  and  if  they  had  the  physicians  of  the  old 
school  and  new  school,  she  tried  both  schools,  but 


342  FAITH. 

kept  getting  worse.  If  they  had  patent  medicines 
she  would  be  trying  every  kind  of  patent  medicine ; 
but  they  did  not  help  her — all  the  while  growing 
worse.  But  one  day  Jesus  happened  to  be  coming 
in  that  part  of  the  country.  I  can  see  her  getting 
down  her  garments,  and  the  children  trying  to  per- 
suade her  not  to  go:  "Mother,  we  hope  you  are  not 
going  to  run  after  that  physician.  You  have  tried 
so  many,  and  we  hope  you  are  not  going  to  waste 
your  strength  by  running  after  that  physician."  I 
can  see  her  put  on  her  garments.  I  don't  know  what 
they  wore  in  those  days,  but  if  she  had  a  shawl,  it 
was  an  old  shawl.  The  doctors  had  got  all  her 
money  in  the  twelve  years.  She  got  down  her  old 
faded  bonnet  and  away  she  went.  She  is  in  the 
crowd,  elbowing  her  way,  pushing  her  way  toward 
the  great  prophet.  When  she  gets  near  enough  to 
touch  Him,  able  bodied  men  push  her  back,  saying 
to  her,  "Don't  you  know  there  are  other  people 
here  who  want  to  get  near  Him  as  well  as  yourself. " 
She  did  not  care  what  they  said.  She  wished  that 
she  might  get  near  enough  to  touch  Him.  There 
was  faith  for  you.  She  had  faith  to  believe  that  if 
she  could  just  touch  the  hem  of  His  garment,  she 
would  be  made  whole.  I  tell  you  when  faith  was 
near  the  Son  of  God  He  knew  all  about  it.  And 
again  she  elbows  her  way  through  that  crowd,  and 
pushes  her  way  up  to  Him,  and,  when  near  enough, 
at  last  reaches  out  her  thin,  pale  arm — nothing  but 
skin  and  bone.  You  can  see  that  hand,  that  bony 
finger;  and  at  last  she  just  touches  the  hem  of  His 
garment,  and  lo !  in  a  minute,  she  is  made  well.  Some 
one  has  said  there  was  more  medicine  in  His  gar- 
ments than  in  all  the  apothecary  shops  in  Palestine. 


FAITH.  343 

The  moment  she  touched  his  garment  she  was  healed. 
That  is  faith.  Some  people  say,  "Oh,  well,  some  men 
have  become  so  debased,  so  debauced,  are  such 
drunkards,  that  it  has  become  a  disease  with  them." 
Suppose  it  has  become  a  disease,  God  is  able  to  heal. 
That  woman  had  a  disease  for  twelve  years.  But  a 
touch  and  the  work  was  done ;  and  .  he  turned  and 
said,  "Who  touched  Me?"  and  they  said,  "That  is  a 
queer  question."  Why,  look  at  the  crowd  that  has 
been  thronging  for  hours.  Look  at  the  hands  that 
touched  Him.  They  could  not  tell  the  difference 
between  the  touch  of  the  crowd  and  the  touch  of 
faith.  Some  of  the  people  came  and  looked  all 
around,  just  as  some  people  have  come  here;  they 
will  be  casting  around  and  they  will  go  out  as 
empty  as  they  came  in.  But  there  may  be  some 
one  that  is  seeking  a  blessing,  and  he  will  say,  "Oh, 
that  I  may  touch  Him  to-night,  that  I  may  get  the 
power ;  that  I  may  be  healed. ' ' 

And  I  tell  you  if  faith  is  here.  He  will  be  here. 
That  is  v/hat  He  wanted  to  bring  out  before  those 
people.  He  knew  that  faith  had  touched  Him,  and 
virtue  had  gone  forth. 

He  knew  who  the  woman  was,  but  He  wanted  to 
get  her  confession.  And  she  fell  at  His  feet  and 
told  it  all  to  Him ;  she  had  tried  other  physicians, 
but  the  moment  she  tried  the  true  physician  she 
was  healed. 

Then  that  other  case  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Mark.  That  was  more  hopeless  than  the  other  two, 
because  the  child  was  dead.  There  was  no  use  send- 
ing for  any  physician ;  the  child  was  too  far  gone. 
But  the  moment  Christ  got  in  that  chamber  and  met 
20 


344  FAITH, 

death  face  to  face,  death  fled  before  Him.     He  had 
power  to  raise  the  dead. 

And  so  there  are  some  people  here  in  Cleveland 
who  will  say,  "There  is  no  use  talking  to  that  per- 
son. He  is  dead  to  everything  that  is  pure.  He  is 
dead  to  everything  that  is  righteous  and  holy. ' ' 
But,  my  dear  friends,  our  Savior  is  a  quickener. 
And  what  we  want  is  faith  to  believe  that  our 
Father  and  Master  can  raise  these  dead  souls  if  we 
bring  them  unto  Him. 

Now,  if  you  have  got  a  son  who  has  wandered  far 
away,  and  you  have  become  discouraged,  and  said 
that  there  is  no  use  laboring  for  his  salvation,  my 
dear  friend,  bear  in  mind,  it  is  very  dishonoring  to 
God.  Instead  of  looking  at  these  obstacles — looking 
at  the  human  heart  so  hard  and  thinking  it  cannot 
be  reached — let  us  lift  our  eyes  to  Him  who  sits 
upon  the  throne,  and  remember  that  just  as  He  left 
the  earth,  He  told  us  that  all  power  is  given  to  Him 
in  heaven  and  on  earth;  and  if  He  has  got  such 
mighty  power,  can't  He  save?  Is  there  a  man  so 
far  gone  in  all  Cleveland  that  Christ  cannot  save 
him?  Is  there  a  woman  so  low,  and  so  degraded, 
and  so  depraved  that  Jesus  Christ  cannot  save  her? 
Away  with  the  doctrine !  My  dear  friends,  He  can. 
He  can  save  unto  the  uttermost.  Let  us  hear  the 
voice  of  the  Master  coming  from  the  throne  to-night. 
"Bring  him  unto  Me."  "Bring  her  unto  Me."  Let 
us  take  them  in  the  arms  of  our  faith  to  the  Son  of 
God,  and  have  faith  to  believe  that  He  has  power 
to  cast  out,  to  heal,  to  cleanse,  to  make  whole,  and 
to  raise  even  the  dead  to  life. 

Now,  it  seems  to  me,  as  He  said  that  to  that  father, 
that  we  might  justly  apply  this  to  parents.     I  will 


FAITH-  345 

venture  to  say  that  half  of  this  audience  here  to- 
night are  parents.  Fathers  and  mothers,  let  me  ask 
you  a  question.  Are  you  not  anxious  for  that  child 
that  God  has  given  you,  or  for  those  children?  May 
1  not  speak  to  some  father  here  to-night  who  has 
got  a  wayward  boy?  Perhaps  this  hour  while  you 
are  here  in  this  gospel  meeting,  that  boy  is  down 
yonder  in  some  brothel,  or  some  gambling  den,  or 
some  drinking  saloon.  His  feet  are  hastening  on 
down  to  death  and  ruin.  Don't  you  want  that  boy 
reached?  Let  us  have  faith  to  believe  that  God  can 
save  our  children.  I  do  not  believe  God  wants  our 
children  lost.  1  believe  that  we  can  be  co-workers 
with  Him.  It  is  a  great  privilege,  and  it  is  a  great 
opportunity  we  have  of  a  united  effort — fathers  and 
mothers  coming  together  to  bring  their  children  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  I  believe  that  if  fathers 
and  mothers,  during  the  next  thirty  days  make  up 
their  minds,  God  helping  them,  that  they  will  bring 
about  this  one  result,  that  they  will  bring  salvation 
to  their  family,  that  they  will  ask  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  to  come  into  their  homes  and  save  every 
member  of  their  family,  God  will  not  disappoint 
them.  And  I  believe  that  if  we  hear  His  voice  to- 
night saying,  bring  him  or  bring  her  unto  Me,  and 
obey  that  command,  and  we  bring  our  children  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  He  will  bless  them. 

I  remember  a  few  years  ago  hearing  of  a  mother 
who  was  dying  with  consumption,  that  had  seven 
children,  and  when  the  hour  came  for  her  to  leave 
this  earth,  she  asked  the  father  to  bring  the  chil- 
dren to  her  bedside,  and  the  husband  brought  the 
children  in  one  by  one.  The  oldest  one  was  brought 
in  first,  and  the  mother  placed  her  hand  upon  its 


346  FAITH. 

head  and  gave  that  child  a  mother's  dying  blessing. 
Then  the  next  one  was  brought  in  and  she  did  the 
same,  and  gave  it  a  message.  At  last  a  little  infant 
was  brought  in,  and  she  took  her  little  child  and 
hugged  it  and  kissed  it,  and  they  saw  that  the  excite- 
ment was  becoming  too  great  for  her,  and  they  took 
the  little  child  away  from  her,  and  as  they  did  it  she 
looked  up  into  her  husband's  face  and  says,  "I  charge 
you  to  bring  all  these  children  home  with  you. ' ' 
And  so  the  Captain  of  your  salvation  and  mine 
charges  us  to  bring  our  children  home  with  us.  The 
promises  are  not  only  to  us,  but  to  our  children ; 
and  what  He  wants  is  to  have  you  and  I  have  faith 
to  believe  that  He  is  ready  and  willing  to  do  it,  and 
that  He  v,'ill  honor  our  faith.  We  have  got  to  work 
as  well  as  have  faith.  We  must  first  have  faith.  We 
must  first  have  faith  to  believe  that  God  will  do  it, 
and  then  we  must  work  for  their  salvation;  we  must 
use  every  means  in  our  power  to  bring  them  to  a 
knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.  Let  us  not  only  bring 
them  to  God  and  prayer  around  our  family  altars, 
and  in  our  closets,  and  in  these  public  meetings; 
but,  my  friends,  let  us  talk  with  them ;  let  us  try  in 
every  way  we  can  to  bring  them  to  the  Son  of  God. 

And  then  let  me  say  another  thing.  Let  us  have 
faith  to  believe  that  they  can  come  early  to  Christ. 
I  believe  that  there  is  many  a  father  and  mother 
that  is  skeptical  on  this  point.  They  have  got  the 
idea  that  their  children  ought  to  grow  up  to  man- 
hood and  womanhood  before  they  can  be  brought  to 
a  knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ. 

Many  of  them  have  got  the  idea  that  they  must 
have  the  seed  of  death  sown  in  their  hearts;  that 
they  must  have  some  of  these  tares  sown  in  their 


FAITH.  347 

hearts  before  they  can  have  the  seed  of  the  king- 
dom ;  that  they  have  got  to  see  some  of  the  world> 
and  they  have  got  to  be  tempted  and  led,  you  might 
say,  into  bondage,  into  sin,  before  they  can  be  saved. 
I  believe  that  is  one  of  the  delusions  of  the  evil  one. 
I  believe  it  is  the  privilege  of  every  father  and 
mother  to  bring  their  children  to  Christ  so  early 
that  they  cannot  tell  when  they  came.  It  is  a  priv- 
ilege for  us  to  take  them  in  the  earlier  days  of  child- 
hood, when  they  can  just  lisp  the  name  of  papa  and 
mamma,  and  teach  them  to  lisp  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  teach  them  in  their  earlier  childhood  to 
love  Him  and  to  serve  Him. 

I  remember,  many  years  ago,  I  was  urging  this  in 
the  State  of  Michigan,  an  old  man  jumped  up  at  the 
close  of  the  meeting  and  said,  "I  want  to  indorse  all 
that  young  man  has  said.  Sixteen  years  ago  I  was 
in  a  heathen  country.  My  wife  died  and  left  me 
with  three  little  children.  The  first  Sabbath  after 
her  death,  my  oldest  little  girl — Nellie,  ten  3'-ears 
old — came  to  me  and  says:  'Papa,  can  I  take  the 
children  into  the  bed-room  and  pray  for  them  as 
mother  used  to  do  on  the  Sabbath?*  "  Let  me  say 
to  you  my  friends,  there  is  the  power  of  example. 
If  I  should  be  called  away  and  leave  my  children  in 
this  cold,  unfriendly  world  at  an  early  age,  I  would 
rather  have  them  come  to  my  grave  and  be  able  to 
say  I  was  more  anxious  for  their  eternal  welfare 
than  for  their  earthly  prosperity.  Well,  this  old 
man  said,  when  the  children  came  out  from  the 
chamber  where  they  had  been  praying,  he  noticed 
that  they  all  had  been  weeping,  and  he  called  to 
his  little  girl  and  said,  "Nellie,  what  have  you  been 
weeping  about?"      "Why,"  she  says   'we  could  not 


348  FAITH. 

help  but  weep.  I  made  the  prayer  that  mother 
taught  me  to  make,  and  (naming  her  little  brother) 
he  made  the  prayer  mother  taught  him ;  but  little 
Susie  didn't  use  to  pray.  Mother  thought  she  was 
too  little  to  pray,  and  when  we  prayed,  little  Susie 
made  a  prayer  and  we  could  not  help  but  weep. " 
"What  did  she  say?"  "She  put  her  little  hands 
together  and  says,  'Oh,  God  you  have  come  and 
taken  away  my  dear  mamma.  I  have  no  mamma  to 
pray  for  me.  Won't  you  please  make  me  just  as 
good  as  my  mamma  was  for  Jesus'  sake.  Amen. '  " 
That  child  before  she  was  four  years  old  gave  evi- 
dence of  being  a  child  of  God.  Fathers,  do  you 
suppose  your  children  can  come  that  early? 

Mothers,  have  you  got  faith  to  believe  that  you 
can  bring  your  children  that  early  to  the  Son  of 
God?  He  will  say  to-night,  as  He  did  when  on 
earth,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  Me, 
and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. "  And  in  this  month,  which  I  hope  will  be 
a  harvest  time,  let  us  bring  our  children  to  the  Son 
of  God.  Let  us  labor  for  their  salvation.  Father, 
mother,  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  to-night 
saying,  "Bring  them  unto  Me."  He  will  not  cast 
them  out.     He  will  bless  them. 

And  let  me  say  to  you,  Sabbath-school  teachers, 
this  a  grand  time  for  you  to  work.  I  never  have 
known  a  Sunday-school  teacher  in  these  special 
efforts  which  we  have  made  in  cities,  who  has  laid 
herself  or  himself  out  to  bring  his  class  to  Christ — 
I  have  scarcely  ever  known  it  to  fail.  This  is  a  grand 
opportunity  now  for  you  to  go  and  bring  the  chil- 
dren in  your  classes  to  Him.  Perhaps  you  will  say 
they  are  too  young  to  be  converted.     They  are  wild, 


PAITH.  349 

it  may  be.  They  are  thoughtless.  They  are  care- 
less. They  are  indifferent.  O,  let  us  not  be  look- 
ing at  them,  but  let  us  look  above  and  remember 
that  the  power  is  yonder,  and  Christ  is  the  power. 
You  cannot  tell  what  may  be  the  result  of  bring- 
ing your  Sunday-school  class  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

I  remember  being  in  a  place  a  few  years  ago,  and 
I  was  the  guest  of  a  friend,  and  in  his  house  there 
was  a  young  lady  that  had  a  Sunday-school  class  in 
the  afternoon,  and  I  happened  to  have  a  meeting 
the  first  afternoon  I  was  there,  and  I  noticed  that 
teacher  in  my  meeting,  and  when  I  got  home  I  said, 
' '  How  was  it  you  were  at  the  meeting  this  afternoon ; 
I  thought  you  had  a  Sunday-school  class?"  "Well, 
so  I  have,  Mr.  Moody,  but,"  she  says,  "I  only  have 
five  little  boys,  and  as  I  thought  it  would  not  do 
much  harm  I  left  them  to-day."  Whenever  you 
hear  a  Sunday-school  teacher  talking  that  way  you 
may  believe  that  he  does  not  understand  the  worth 
of  a  soul.  Five  little  boys !  Why,  dear  teacher,  do 
you  know  that  in  that  class  there  may  be  a  Luther? 
In  that  little  tow-headed  German  boy  there  may 
slumber  a  reformation.  There  may  come  power 
upon  him  that  he  may  go  out  and  be  a  blessing  to 
the  world.  You  can't  tell  when  you  call  a  little  boy 
to  Christ  what  he  may  become.  He  may  be  a  White- 
field,  or  a  Wesley,  or  a  Knox,  or  a  Bunyan.  Eter- 
nity alone  can  tell  what  is  to  be  done  when  we  bring 
a  soul  to  Christ. 

Now,  Sabbath- school  teachers,  this  is  a  golden 
opportunity.  Let  us  work  together;  let  us  pray 
together,  and  not  rest  at  night  until  we  see  those 
we  are  responsible  for  brought  to  Christ.     Let  us 


350  FAITH. 

labor  to  bring  them  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  if 
we  labor  faithfully,  He  will  not  disappoint  us. 

I  remember  the  inspiration  that  I  got  for  this  work 
the  very  first  soul  that  I  led  to  Christ.  I  can  remem- 
ber what  a  new  life  was  awakened  in  me,  and  I 
trust  I  have  not  been  the  same  man  from  that  day  to 
this,  and  I  hope  there  will  be  a  great  many  workers 
in  this  city  of  Cleveland  that  will  be  roused  to  go 
out  and  work  for  souls.  It  is  the  highest  privilege 
on  earth.  There  is  nothing  like  it  to  be  a  worker 
with  God;  to  be  instrumental  in  bringing  souls  to 
Christ. 

I  want  to  tell  you  just  a  little  incident  that  roused 
me.  I  was  a  nominal  Christian  for  a  number  of 
years ;  but,  my  friends,  I  would  rather  die  than  go 
back  to  that  kind  of  life — having  a  name  to  live,  and 
no  power,  no  life,  and  not  able  to  say  there  is  one 
who  has  been  led  to  Christ  by  my  influence — to  be 
a  professed  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  be  able 
to  say  there  is  one  solitary  soul  that  has  been  led  to 
Christ  by  my  influence.  How  does  that  professed 
Christian  live  on  year  after  year,  when  he  had  such 
a  glorious  privilege  to  work  for  Christ  and  win  souls 
for  Him?  And  I  believe  to-day  what  we  want  is  to 
get  the  laity  aroused.  What  we  want  is  to  get  the 
pulpit  and  the  pew  united,  until  Christianity  becomes 
a  living  power  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  I  do  not 
fear  your  infidelity.  I  do  not  fear  your  false  isms 
cropping  upon  the  earth  half  as  much  as  I  do  these 
cold  formalisms  coming  into  the  church  of  God. 
Let  me  tell  you  what  awakened  me.  I  had  a  large 
Sunday-school  in  Chicago,  and  I  was  satisfied  with 
having  large  numbers  interested.  We  were  sowing 
seed,  and  I  said  it  was  going  to  spring  up  sometime, 


Copyright,  1900,  by  Robt .  O.  Law. 

THE    COLPORTAGE   COTTAGE,  CHICAGO 

From  this  little  building  is  sent  out  annually  to  all  P^^^^^^^^^  world,  millions  of 

tracts  and  tons  of  Bible  literature. 


FAITH.  353 

but  I  did  not  know  when.  There  are  a  great  many- 
people  who  are  all  the  time  sowing  seed.  What 
would  you  say  of  a  farmer  that  was  always  sowing 
seed  and  never  harvested?  You  want  to  sow  with 
one  hand  and  reap  with  the  other,  and  if  we  look 
for  an  immediate  harvest  we  shall  have  it. 

I  was  just  in  that  condition.  I  was  sowing  and 
sowing.  I  had  a  hall  over  a  meat  market,  and  over 
in  a  corner  I  had  a  class  of  wild,  thoughtless,  friv- 
olous young  misses.  I  had  more  trouble  with  that 
class  than  with  all  the  other  classes  of  the  school ; 
but  I  had,  I  thoiight,  the  best  teacher  in  the  school 
in  that  class.  He  was  there  every  Sunday,  and  held 
their  attention  pretty  well.  But  one  Sunday  he  was 
absent,  and  before  I  could  get  around  to  his  house 
to  find  out  what  was  the  matter,  he  came  down  to 
my  store.  He  was  pale.  He  took  a  seat  upon  a 
box,  and  he  said,  "I  have  been  bleeding  again  at 
my  lungs,  and  Kave  got  to  give  up  business.  The 
doctor  tells  me  I  can't  live  much  longer,  and  I  have 
closed  up  my  business,  and  am  going  home  to  my 
mother  in  the  East  to  die."  Then  he  began  to 
weep.  "Well,"  I  says  to  him,  "you  are  not  afraid 
to  die?"  "No,"hesays;  "Mr.  Moody  that  does  not 
trouble  me,  but  my  Sunday-school  class;  I  will  meet 
them  on  the  day  of  judgment;  not  one  of  them  is 
converted.  If  I  had  been  faithful,  some  of  them 
might  have  been  saved ;  biit  now  I  am  called  away 
from  them.  I  never  shall  meet  them  again  in  this 
world.  What  will  I  say  when  I  meet  the  Judge?" 
The  poor  man's  heart  was  broken.  I  said:  "Sup- 
pose we  go  and  see  them."  He  said  when  he  had 
strength  he  did  not  go,  and  now  he  had  lost  his 
strength  and  could  not  go.     I  said,  "I  will  take  you 


354  FAITH. 

in  a  carriage. ' '  I  took  that  man  out  in  a  carriage ; 
we  went  from  house  to  house.  He  was  so  weak  he 
reeled  on  the  sidewalk.  When  he  got  in  the  house, 
he  would  say  to  Margaret,  to  Mary  or  to  Jane,  call- 
ing them  by  their  first  name,  "I  have  come  to  talk 
to  you  about  coming  to  Christ;"  and  then  would 
plead  with  them  as  a  dying  man.  When  his  strength 
gave  way  I  took  him  home,  and  the  next  day  we 
started  out  again,  and  at  the  end  of  ten  days  the 
last  one  was  converted.  We  had  a  meeting  at  his 
house,  and  it  was  at*  that  meeting  that  I  caught  a 
new  inspiration.  It  was  at  that  meeting  that  God 
gave  me  to  see  the  worth  of  a  soul.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  ever  spent  such  a  night  before  that  time. 
The  whole  class  was  gathered  into  the  fold.  That 
teacher  got  down  on  his  knees  and  prayed  that  the 
Lord  might  give  His  angels  charge  over  them. 
When  we  got  through,  one  of  the  young  converts 
began  to  pray,  and  another  and  ariother  prayed  for 
their  teacher — that  they  might  be  kept  faithful,  and 
that  the  Lord  might  be  with  him  in  his  sickness ;  and 
we  bid  him  good-bye,  after  singing  "Blest  be  the 
tie  that  binds  our  hearts  in  christian  love. ' '  It  was 
a  joyful  meeting  with  all  its  sadness.  The  next 
night  he  was  to  leave  our  city  about  sundown.  I 
went  to  the  station  to  bid  him  good-bye,  and  without 
speaking  to  anybody  about  it  or  expecting  it,  I  found 
at  the  depot  before  the  train  started  the  whole  class 
was  there.  Standing  on  the  platform,  the  class 
gathered  around  him.  It  was  the  most  beautiful 
sight  ever  I  Saw.  They  sang,  "We  meet  to  part 
again,  but  when  we  meet  on  Canaan's  shore  there 
will  be  no  parting. "  And  as  the  train  started,  with 
his   pale   finger  he    pointed    to   heaven,    until   the 


FAITH.  355 

wheels  rolled  him  out  of  the  city ;  but,  my  friends, 
his  influence  lives  in  Chicago  to-day.  Let  us  work 
and  bring  our  children  to  Christ  and  our  influence 
will  be  felt  hundreds  of  years  hence.  What  we  do 
for  God  is  forever.  It  is  eternal  and  everlasting. 
So  let  us  be  up  and  about  our  Master's  work.  Let 
us  hunt  up  and  bring  some  soul  to  Christ.  Now, 
my  friends,  do  you  believe  that  you  can  be  instru- 
mental in  God's  hands  in  leading  one  soul  to  Christ 
during  the  next  thirty  days?  I  do  not  believe  there 
is  a  man  or  woman  in  this  house  but  may  be  instru- 
mental in  leading  some  one  soul  to  Christ  if  he  tries. 
Hear  the  voice  of  the  Master  to-night — "Bring  him 
unto  Me."     Let  us  pray. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


REPENTANCE. 

But  now  commandeth  all  men  everj-where  to  repent. — 
Acts  xvii,  30. 

You  will  find  my  text  to-night  in  the  17  th  chapter 
of  Acts,  a  part  of  the  30th  verse:  "Commandeth 
all  men  everywhere  to  repent. "  That  must  take  all 
in.  It  is  another  command.  Then  in  the  next  verse 
he  tells  us  why:  "Because  he  hath  appointed  a  day 
in  the  which  He  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness 
by  that  man  whom  He  hath  ordained;  whereof  He 
hath  given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  He  hath 
raised  him  from  the  dead. ' ' 

The  day  is  appointed.  We  do  not  know  anything 
about  the  calendar  of  heaven.  God  has  kept  that 
appointment  in  His  own  mind.  We  do  not  know 
just  the  day,  but  the  day  is  appointed,  the  time  is 
fixed,  and  God  is  going  to  judge  this  world.  So  He 
sends  out  a  proclamation  and  commands  all  men  now 
everywhere  to  repent.  And  if  you  do  not  want  to  be 
brought  into  judgment  and  be  judged,  you  had  bet- 
ter repent;  turn  to  God,  and  let  Jesus  Christ  be 
judged  for  you,  and  escape  the  judgment.  It  is  a 
great  thing  to  get  rid  of  the  judgment.  "There  is 
no  condemnation  to  him  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus. " 
That  is,  there  is  no  judgment.  Judgment  is  already 
past  to  the  believer — to  the  man  that  has  repented 

356 


REPENTANCE.  357 

of  his  sins  and  confessed  them,  and  turned  away 
from  them,  and  God  has  put  them  away.  They 
never  again  shall  be  mentioned.  We  read  in  Ezekiel 
that  not  one  of  our  sins  have  been  mentioned ;  that 
they  have  been  forgiven ;  therefore  God  calls  upon 
all  men  everywhere  now — not  some  future  time — 
but  now,  right  here  to-night,  to  repent. 

As  we  look  at  the  beginning  of  the  gospel  of  this 
dispensation,  you  will  find  that  John  the  Baptist, 
the  forerunner  of  Christ,  that  his  voice  just  rung 
through  the  wilderness  of  Judea,  and  that  he  had 
but  one  text;  you  might  say  his  text  was  one  word, 
"Repent,  repent,  repent."  That  was  his  cry.  He 
kept  it  up  until  he  met  Christ  at  the  Jordan,  and 
then  he  changed  the  text,  and  he  had  but  one  text 
after  that:  "Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world. ' ' 

He  first  called  to  repentance,  but  when  Jesus 
Christ  commenced  His  ministry,  he  took  up  that 
wilderness  cry  and  echoed  it  again  over  the  plains 
of  Palestine — "Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  at  hand."  When  He  sent  out  the  twelve,  He 
told  them  to  go  into  every  town  and  make  this 
proclamation:  "That  the  kingdom  of  God  was 
coming  nigh,  and  men  must  repent.  If  they  wanted 
to  get  in  His  kingdom,  they  must  eriter  through 
that  door  of  repentance. "  When  He  sent  out  the 
seventy,  two  by  two,  He  gave  them  instructions 
that  they  should  just  say,  "Repent,  for  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  at  hand." 

Then  we  find,  after  Christ  had  ascended  again  into 
glory,  Peter  took  up  that  cry  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, and  as  he  preached  through  Jerusalem  to  sin- 


358  REPENTANCE. 

ners  that  they  must  repent,  the  Holy  Ghost  came 
down  and  testified  to  what  Peter  was  saying. 

Now,  we  find  in  this  text  Paul  is  here  in  Athens 
raising  that  wilderness  cry  again,  and  commands 
men  now  and  everywhere  to  repent.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  man  getting  to  heaven  until  he 
repents.  You  may  preach  Christ  and  offer  Christ, 
but  man  has  got  to  turn  away  from  sin  first,  as  we 
tried  to  show  you  last  night.  "Let  the  wicked  for- 
sake his  way,  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and 
turn  unto  the  Lord."     Repentance  is  turning. 

Before  I  commence  to  preach  about  repentance,  I 
want  to  tell  you  what  it  is  not.  The  fact  is,  I  be- 
lieve this  great  truth  that  has  been  talked  so  much 
in  the  church  that  every  school-boy  ought  to  be 
acquainted  with  it,  is  the  very  thing  we  are  in  dark- 
ness about. 

It  seems  to  me  as  if  Satan  has  thrown  dust  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people ;  that  the  god  of  this  world  has 
blinded  us  to  these  things.  I  find  a  great  many 
people  have  a  false  idea  of  what  repentance  is. 

Now,  repentance  is  not  fear.  Mark  that.  I  may 
stand  here  to-night,  and  I  may  perhaps  picture  to 
you  the  judgment,  and  I  might  alarm  some  people 
here,  and  you  may  get  scared  and  it  would  look  as 
if  it  was  true  work,  but  it  would  pass  away  like  a 
morning  cloud.  I  might  hold  a  revolver  to  your 
head  and  say,  ' '  Repent,  or  I  will  blow  your  brains 
out,"  and  you  would  say,  "I  will  repent,  I  will  re- 
pent," but  when  the  revolver  was  taken  away,  you 
would  forget  all  about  it.  That  is  taking  place  all 
the  while.  Some  people  think  they  have  got  to  be 
wrought  up.  Something  has  to  be  said  to  alarm 
them.     You  go  out  to  sea,  or  out  here  on  Lake  Erie, 


REPENTANCE.  359 

and  let  a  storm  come  up ;  fifteen  minutes  before  the 
storm  the  sailors,  and  perhaps  the  captain,  are 
cursing  and  blaspheming.  A  storm  comes  up  and 
they  go  to  praying.  You  would  think  they  were 
saints.  The  storm  passes  away,  and  they  are  out  of 
danger  and  they  are  swearing  again.  That  is  fear. 
That  is  not  repentance.  It  seemed  as  if  the  king 
of  Egypt  was  really  coming  to  the  Lord,  to  hear  him 
talk  when  he  heard  the  thunderings,  and  judgments 
of  God  upon  him.  The  king  was  alarmed.  It 
looked  as  if  he  was  coming  to  the  Lord,  but  he  was 
only  scared.  The  moment  those  judgments  were 
off  he  forgot  all  about  it.  That  was  not  repentance 
at  all.  A  man  may  be  scared  and  not  repent.  A 
man  may  be  alarmed  and  not  repent.  Many  men, 
when  death  comes  and  takes  a  look  at  them,  begin 
to  be  alarmed.  They  get  well  and  forget  all  about 
it. 

Repentance  is  not  feeling.  Mark  that!  There 
are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  people  in  Cleveland 
who  just  have  their  arms  folded  and  they  are  wait- 
ing for  some  queer  kind  of  feeling.  They  think 
repentance  is  a  certain  kind  of  feeling;  that  they 
have  to  feel  very  bad,  very  sorrowful — got  to  weep 
a  good  deal,  and  then  they  will  be  in  a  condition  to 
come  to  God.  Repentance  is  not  feeling.  A  man 
may  feel  very  bad  and  not  really  repent.  I  venture 
to  say  if  you  go  down  to  Columbus  to  the  state  pen- 
itentiary you  cannot  find  a  man  in  there  that  does 
not  feel  sorry  he  got  caught,  awful  sorry — shed  a 
great  many  tears  in  court  on  his  trial.  The  trouble 
is  they  are  sorry  they  got  caught.  That  is  all. 
They  feel  very  bad  they  got  caught.  But  there  is 
no  true  repentance ;  no  turning  to  God.     Feeling  is 


360  REPENTANCE. 

"not  repentance.  Last  winter  I  preached  seven 
months  to  the  convicts  in  the  Maryland  peniten- 
tiary. I  found  men  just  the  same  under  lock  and 
key  that  they  are  out.  There  were  a  great  many 
there  in  that  prison  who  had  passed  through  their 
trial,  been  sentenced  ten  years  or  five  years  to  the 
penitentiary,  that  had  no  signs  of  repentance  there 
at  all.  They  were  very  sorry  they  got  caught. 
They  would  like  to  get  out  very  well,  and  perhaps 
they  would  do  the  same  thing  right  over  when  they 
got  out.     That  is  not  repentance  at  all. 

A  man  ma}^  be  dishonest  in  some  business 
transaction,  and  bring  ruin  upon  himself  and  his 
family;  he  may  weep  bitter  tears  for  weeks  and  for 
months,  and  yet  not  repent.  But  he  is  very  sorry 
he  got  caught.  These  defaulters  are  all  sorry  they 
got  caught.  I  do  not  know  how  many  of  them  truly 
repent.  If  they  truly  repent,  God  forgives  them 
whether  man  does  or  not.  They  may  shed  a  great 
many  tears  and  not  repent. 

I  tell  you  we  have  got  to  wake  up  to  the  fact  that 
repentance  is  not  feeling.  It  is  something  higher, 
deeper,  broader  than  just  mere  sentiment  or  feel- 
ing. A  man  may  weep,  and  brush  away  the  tears 
and  forget  all  about  it. 

And  then  repentance  is  not  remorse.  Judas  had 
remorse.  He  did  not  repent  towards  God.  He  was 
filled  with  remorse  and  despair,  and  went  out  and 
hung  himself.  That  was  not  repentance.  There  is 
a  difference  between  remorse  and  repentance. 

Then  repentance  is  not  penance.  Some  people 
think  they  have  got  to  put  that  in  the  place  of  re- 
pentance. They  think  if  they  just  do  penance 
they  are  all  right.    Suppose  I  go  down  to  Lake  Erie 


REPENTANCE.  361 

and  stand  all  night  up  to  my  neck  in  the  water  till 
daylight,  is  that  repentance?  Will  I  be  more  ac- 
ceptable to  God  to-morrow  night  because  I  have 
been  down  there  in  the  lake  all  night  and  stood  in 
the  water  up  to  my  neck?  That  is  not  repent- 
ance. 

Conviction  is  not  repentance.  A  man  may  be  con- 
victed that  he  is  wrong  and  not  repent.  I  may  re- 
main for  years  under  conviction  and  not  repent. 

Repentance  is  not  praying.  A  great  many  peo- 
ple think  they  are  going  to  settle  this  question  by 
going  off  to  pray  and  asking  God  to  forgive  them, 
and  they  go  right  on  living  the  same  way  they  have 
been  living. 

Repentance  is  not  forming  a  few  good  resolu- 
tions. It  is  not  resolving  that  we  will  be  better  and 
do  better  in  the  future  and  just  go  right  on. 

Repentance  is  not  breaking  off  from  some  sin. 
That  is  not  repentance.  Suppose  a  vessel  has  sprung 
a  leak.  There  are  three  holes  in  it.  You  stop  up 
two  of  them  and  leave  one  of  them  open.  Down 
goes  the  vessel.  That  is  enough  to  sink  it.  And  so 
some  men  say,  "Well,  I  will  break  off  part  of  my 
sins."  Suppose  you  are  guilty  of  a  'hundred  and 
break  off  ninety-nine  of  them  and  leave  one,  and  go 
on  committing  that  one.  That  one  is  enough,  my 
friends. 

If  God  drove  Adam  out  of  Eden  on  account  of  one 
sin,  do  you  think  He  will  let  you  into  the  Paradise 
above  with  one  sin  upon  you?  If  God  would  not  let 
Adam  stay  in  Eden — that  earthly  paradise — with 
one  sin  upon  him,  do  you  think  He  is  going  to  allow 
sinners  into  that  heavenly  Paradise  above  with  one 
sin  upon  them?     So,  it  is  not  just  breaking  off  part 


362  REPENTANCE. 

of  our  sins  and  leaving  part  of  them,  but  it  is  leav- 
ing the  whole  of  them. 

Perhaps  you  say:  "Then  what  is  repentance?  If 
it  is  not  fear,  if  it  is  not  feeling,  if  it  is  not  prayer, 
and  if  it  is  not  forming  a  few  good  resolutions  and 
doing  penance,  what  is  it?" 

Listen,  my  friends.  Repentance  is  turning  right 
about — in  other  words,  as  a  soldier  would  call  it, 
"right  about  face."  As  some  one  has  said,  man  is 
born  with  his  back  towards  God.  When  he  truly 
repents  he  turns  right  around  and  faces  God.  Re- 
pentance is  a  change  of  mind.  Repentance  is  an 
after-thought. 

Now,  I  might  feel  sorry  that  I  had  done  a  thing, 
and  go  right  on  and  do  it  over  again.  You  see  re- 
pentance is  deeper  than  feeling.  It  is  action.  It  is 
turning  right  about.  And  God  commands  all  men 
everywhere  to  turn. 

Let  me  read  to  you  here  a  verse  or  two  from  the 
twenty-first  chapter  of  the  gospel  according  to 
Matthew:  "What  think  ye?"  These  are  the  words 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  "What  think  ye?  A 
certain  man  had  two  sons ;  and  he  said  to  them : 
'Go  work  in  my  vineyard.'  One  of  them  said,  'I 
will  not  go.'  The  other  said,  'I  will  go,  sir,'  "  and 
went  not.  But  the  man  that  said  he  would  not  go 
repented  and  changed  his  mind — an  after-thought, 
you  see — and  turned  and  went  and  did  it.  "Now," 
says  Christ,  "which  of  the  two  sons  did  his  father's 
will?"  "Well,  the  man  that  repented."  And 
Christ  just  held  that  right  up  to  the  people.  That 
is  what  the  Lord  wants — to  have  a  man  turn  right 
about — not  try  to  justify  himself  in  his  sin,  but 
acknowledge  his  sin,  confess  his  sin,  and  turn  from 


REPENTANCE.  363 

it;  and  the  moment  a  man  is  willing  to  do  that,  that 
moment  God  is  ready  and  willing-  to  receive  him. 

Now,  I  think  I  can  use  an  illustration  that  you  can 
get  hold  of.  Suppose  I  want  to  go  to  Chicago  to- 
night. I  go  down  to  the  depot.  I  do  not  know 
much  about  the  trains  in  Cleveland.  I  see  a  man 
there  whom  I  take  to  be  connected  with  the  depot, 
and  I  ask  him,  "Is  this  train  going  right  to  Chi- 
cago?" "Yes."  I  take  my  bag  and  jump  right 
aboard  that  train.  I  get  comfortably  seated  and 
my  friend,  Mr.  Doan,  comes  down  and  he  says: 
"Mr.  Moody,  where  are  you  going?"  And  I  say, 
"Going  to  Chicago."  "Well,  you  are  on  the  wrong 
train.  That  train  is  going  off  to  New  York."  "I 
think  you  are  wrong,  Mr.  Doan ;  I  just  asked  a  man 
who  is  a  railroad  man,  and  he  told  me  this  train  was 
going  to  Chicago."  "Well,  sir,  I  tell  you  you  are 
wrong.  That  train  is  not  going  to  Chicago  at  all ; 
it  is  going  to  take  you  right  in  an  opposite  direction. 
That  train  is  going  off'  to  New  York,  and  if  5^ou 
want  to  go  to  Chicago,  you  must  get  out  of  that 
train  and  get  aboard  another."  1  do  not  believe 
him  at  first.  "Well,"  he  says,  "but  I  have  been  here 
in  Cleveland  for  twenty-five  years.  I  know  all  about 
these  trains.  I  go  to  Chicago  and  New  York  a  dozen 
times  a  year.  I  am  constantly  taking  these  trains. 
I  am  having  friends  nearly  every  week  that  take 
these  trains,  and  I  come  down  here,  and  I  tell  you 
that  I  am  right  and  you  are  wrong,  sir.  You  are  on 
the  wrong  train."  At  last,  Mr.  Doan  convinces  me 
that  I  am  on  the  wrong  train.  That  is  conviction. 
But,  if  I  do  not  change  trains,  I  will  go  to  New 
York  in  spite  of  my  conviction.  That  is  not  repent- 
ance.    I  will  tell  you  what  is  repentance;  grabbing 


364  REPENTANCE. 

my  bag  and  running  and  getting  on  the  other  train. 
That  is  repentance. 

Now,  you  are  on  the  wrong  train,  my  friends,  and 
what  you  want  is  to  change  trains  to-night.  You 
are  on  the  wrong  side  of  this  question.  You  are  for 
the  god  of  this  world,  and  the  world  claims  your  in- 
fluence. God  commands  all  men  now  everywhere 
to  repent.  Change  trains!  Make  haste!  There  is 
no  time  for  delay !  It  is  a  call  that  comes  from  the 
throne  of  God  for  every  man,  woman  and  child  in 
this  audience.  Repent!  If  you  die  without  repent- 
ance, whose  fault  is  it?  God  has  called  you;  God 
has  commanded  you,  and  if  you  will  not  obey  that 
command,  if  you  will  not  repent,  and  you  die  in 
your  sins,  no  one  is  to  blame  but  yourself,  mark 
that !  No  one  is  to  blame  but  yourself,  for  God  has 
commanded  you. 

Now,  the  question  is,  what  will  you  do  with  this 
command?  Will  you  repent?  Will  you  this  very 
night,  and  this  very  hour,  change  trains? 

I  will  give  you  another  illustration.  There  is  go- 
ing to  be  an  election  in  this  State  to-morrow.  Sup- 
pose you  belong  to  a  party  up  till  to-night  and  you 
thought  you  were  right;  but  to-night  you  become 
convinced  that  the  party  you  are  in  is  wrong.  You 
become  thoroughly  convinced  that  if  the  party  suc- 
ceeds it  is  ruin  to  your  state  government.  You  are 
a  patriotic  man  and  you  love  the  government. 

Now,  some  men  say,  "Can  a  man  repent  all  at 
once?"  I  say  he  can.  A  man  may  come  in  here 
to-night  a  strong  democrat,  or  he  may  come  in  here 
a  strong  republican,  and  he  may  change  inside  of 
twenty-four  hours.  You  know  that,  don't  you?  If 
you  belonged  to  a  party  and  you  were  thoroughly 


REPENTANCE.  365 

convinced  to-night  that  you  were  in  the  wrong 
party,  do  you  tell  me  you  could  not  change  to-night 
and  join  the  other  party  and  go  out  to  the  polls  and 
go  to  work  to-morrow  and  be  on  the  other  side  of 
the  question?  You  can  do  it  if  you  will. 

Now,  my  friends,  we  will  not  bring  up  this  ques- 
tion of  parties.  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  that,  I 
only  use  it  as  an  illustration.  There  is  one  thing  I 
do  know ;  you  are  on  the  wrong  side  of  this  ques- 
tion. If  you  are  away  from  God,  and  if  you  are 
fighting  against  the  God  of  heaven,  you  had  better 
change  trains  at  once,  hadn't  you?  Do  it  to-night. 
Make  up  your  mind  to-night  that  you  will  cast  your 
lot  with  God's  people — that  you  will,  just  change 
trains. 

Look  at  that  train  the  other  night  on  the  Michi- 
gan Central  road  near  Jackson.  Do  you  tell  me  a 
man  cannot  repent  all  at  once?  Do  you  tell  me  that 
the  engineer  of  that  train  could  not  have  whistled 
down  brakes  and  turned  that  train  back  if  he  had 
had  three  minutes?  He  could  if  he  had  had  time. 
He  didn't  have  enough  time.  Look  at  that  steamer 
on  the  ocean.  It  is  bearing  down  upon  an  iceberg. 
It  is  going  at  the  rate  of  twelve  knots  an  hour  in  a 
fog ;  they  cannot  see  a  rod  ahead.  All  at  once  they 
reverse  the  steam.  In  a  minute  more  they  would 
have  gone  on  the  iceberg,  and  all  on  that  vessel 
would  have  gone  down.  There  was  a  minute  when 
they  could  have  reversed  the  steam,  and  they  just 
seized  the  opportunity  and  saved  all  on  board. 

And  so  there  is  a  moment,  my  friends,  that  you 
can  repent  and  turn  to  God,  and  there,  is  such  a 
thing  as  being  a  minute  too  late.  Look  at  that 
White  Star  Line  steamer  when  five  hundred  were 


366  REPENTANCE. 

lost  off  the  coast  of  Newfoundland.  There  was  a 
minute  that  they  just  crossed  the  line,  as  it  were. 
It  was  too  late. 

So  you  may  neglect  your  soul's  salvation,  and  you 
may  neglect  to  repent  one  day  too  long,  and  it  will 
be  too  late.  God  commands  you  to  do  it  now.  He 
says  "Except  a  man  repent,  he  cannot  see  the  king- 
dom of  God.  "  "Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  like- 
wise perish. "  "Except  ye  repent."  We  have  got 
to  enter  through  the  door  of  repentance  into  the 
kingdom  of  God.  There  is  no  other  way.  The 
highest  and  the  lowest,  the  richest  and  the  poorest, 
have  all  got  to  go  in  in  the  same  way — on  their 
hands  and  knees. 

I  had  a  friend  during  the  Chicago  fire  who  got 
into  one  of  those  lanes  there,  and  he  became  so 
stifled  with  smoke  that  he  lay  down  to  die.  But  as 
he  lay  on  the  ground,  he  got  beneath  the  smoke  and 
crawled  out  on  his  hands  and  knees.  And  I  tell  you 
when  a  man  gets  on  his  knees  and  says,  "God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner,"  God  will  forgive  him  and 
bless  him.  And  so,  if  there  is  a  person  to-night  in 
this  house  that  wants  to  be  saved  just  now  while  I 
am  talking,  say,  "God  helping  me,  this  night  I  turn 
my  face  toward  heaven;"  and  if  need  be,  God  will 
send  legions  of  angels  to  help  you  fight  your  way  up 
to  heaven. 

Some  men  say  they  are  afraid  they  will  not  hold 
out.  But  God  says,  "My  grace  is  sufficient  for 
thee."  "As  thy  faith,  so  shall  thy  strength  be." 
God  is  not  a  hard  master.  "My  yoke  is  easy  and 
my  burden  is  light."  When  men  make  deep  and 
thorough  work,  and  are  willing  to  forsake  all  sin 
and  turn  to  God  with  all  their  hearts,  God  helps 


REPENTANCE.  367 

them ;  then  there  is  no  trouble.  God  is  not  a  hard 
master. 

Now,  it  is  left  to  you,  as  I  said  last  night.  You 
can  turn  if  5'ou  will.  The  will  comes  in  again.  I 
read  some  time  ago  an  account  of  some  wealthy  man 
who  had  an  only  son,  who  was  a  wild,  reckless  boy ; 
but,  although  he  was  a  wild,  reckless  boy,  his  father 
loved  him.  When  the  father  was  dying,  he  had  his 
wiil  made  out,  and  he  willed  that  boy  all  his  property 
on  one  condition,  and  that  was  that  that  boy  should 
repent  of  his  sins.  If  the  boy  turned  away  from  his 
evil  associates,  and  his  past  life,  and  became  a 
sober  and  an  upright  man,  he  should  have  all  his 
estate.  All  he  had  got  to  do  was  to  enter  into  it. 
The  father  put  it  in  the  hands  of  trustees  on  these 
conditions,  and  all  that  boy  had  to  do  was  to  turn 
from  his  past  life,  and  his  evil  associates,  and  enter 
into  it.  He  loved  his  sins  so  he  would  not  do  it, 
and  he  died  in  his  sins.  I  do  not  know  as  I  could 
have  a  better  illustration  than  that.  We  have  got 
an  inheritance,  incorruptible,  kept  in  reserve  for  us, 
and  the  moment  a  man  is  willing  to  turn  from  his 
sins  he  can  enter  into  that  inheritance.  God  keeps 
it  in  store  for  all  that  want  it.  But  do  not  think  for 
a  moment  that  you  are  going  to  enter  into  that  in- 
heritance— into  those  mansions  Christ  has  gone  to 
prepare,  with  sin  upon  you.  It  is  utterly  out  of  the 
question.  In  5"our  sins  it  is  impossible  for  you  to 
enter  into  that  inheritance.  "Except  ye  repent  ye 
shall  all  likewise  perish."  We  cannot  get  into  the 
kingdom  of  God  without  repentance,  without  turn- 
ing from  sin,  without  laying  hold  of  His  righteous- 
ness and  giving  up  our  own. 

So  the  question  comes  for  us  to  settle,  and  it  is  a 


368  REPENTANCE. 

question  we  can  settle  if  we  wil].  We  need  not  wait 
for  this  kind  of  feeling  or  that  kind.  It  is  to  obey. 
Do  you  think  God  would  command  us  to  do  some- 
thing we  could  not  do,  and  then  punish  us  eternally 
for  not  doing  it?  Do  you  think  God  would  com- 
mand all  men  now  everywhere  to  repent,  and  not 
give  them  power  to  do  it?  Do  you  believe  it? 
Away  with  such  a  doctrine  as  that!  He  would  be 
an  unjust  God  if  He  commanded  me  to  do  some- 
thing I  could  not  do,  and  then  punished  me  for  not 
doing  it. 

Suppose  I  should  command  my  boy  to  leap  a  mile 
at  one  leap,  and  if  he  did  not  do  it  that  I  would  flog 
him,  and  then  because  he  didn't  do  it  I  flogged  him, 
what  would  you  people  in  Cleveland  say?  You . 
would  not  allow  me  to  preach.  You  would  say  I 
was  an  unjust  man.  There  is  one  thing,  we  must 
do  as  we  preach  about  the  love  of  God  and  mercy 
of  God;  we  have  also  to  stand  up  for  His  justice. 
He  is  a  God  of  justice.  God  is  not  an  unjust  God. 
He  does  not  command  us  to  do  anything  we  cannot 
do,  and  then  punish  us  for  not  doing  it.  With  the 
command  comes  the  power  to  obey.  He  said  to  the 
man  with  the  withered  hand,  "Stretch  out  thine 
hand."  The  man  might  have  said,  "Well,  Lord,  I 
have  been  trying  to  stretch  out  that  hand  for  thirty 
years,  but  I  could  not  do  it. ' '  But  with  the  com- 
mand came  the  power.  He  said,  "Stretch  out  thine 
hand,"  and  out  came  the  old  withered  arm,  and 
was  made  whole  before  it  got  out  straight  from  his 
body;  and  so  men  are  blessed  in  the  very  act  of 
obedience.  Not  for  just  feeling  or  sentiment. 
What  God  wants  is  to  have  us  obey.  What  is  it  to 
obey?    It  is  to  repent  and  bring  forth  fruit  meet  for 


s      ° 


M  >p 


REPENTANCE.  37I 

repentance.  What  does  that  mean?  If  you  cheat  a 
man  out  of  five  dollars,  don't  keep  that  five  dollars. 
Give  it  back.  If  you  are  going  to  repent  and  turn 
to  God,  out  with  it!  It  don't  belong  to  you.  If 
some  young  man  cheats  his  wash-woman  by  not 
paying  his  wash-bill,  or  goes  off  without  paying 
his  boarding  mistress,  don't  think  you  can  repent 
and  turn  to  God  without  paying  up  every  dollar, 
and  bringing  forth  fruit  meet  for  repentance. 

In  John  Wesley's  day,  there  was  a  hard  case  that 
came  in  among  the  Wesleys.  He  was  one  of  the 
wildest  men  in  Wales.  He  had  been  a  drinking 
man  for  years.  He  used  to  take  great  pleasure  in 
defrauding  men.  He  would  drink  and  not  pay  for 
his  drinks.  He  would  gamble,  and  not  pay  what  he 
had  lost.  He  owed  debts  to  nearly  everybody.  But 
he  was  converted,  and  soon  after  he  was  converted 
he  had  a  little  legacy  left  him,  and  he  bought  a 
horse  and  saddle  and  he  started,  and  went  from 
town  to  town  and  hunted  up  his  old  creditors  and 
paid  them  dollar  for  dollar.  Then  he  would  preach 
in  those  towns,  and  tell  them  what  great  things  God 
had  done  for  him.  But  he  hadn't  enough  money 
to  go  around  and  he  sold  the  horse  and  saddle,  and 
he  paid  up  the  very  last  dime.  It  is  to  pay  the  last 
dime — that  is  repentance.  We  want  a  revival  of 
righteousness  here  in  the  West.  If  we  want  any- 
thing we  want  right  living.  We  want  a  revival  of 
honesty.  When  the  Bible  says,  "Bring  forth  fruit 
meet  for  repentance,"  it  means  to  make  restitution. 
If  you  ruin  a  man,  do  what  you  can  to  help  that 
poor  fellow.  If  you  have  helped  to  pull  any  down, 
do  all  you  can  to  help  him  up.  If  it  takes  the  last 
21 


372  REPENTANCE. 

dollar  5'ou  have  got,  you  must  pay  it,  where  you 
have  taken  from  men  dishonestly. 

When  Mr.  Sankey  and  I  were  in  a  town  or  city 
some  time  ago  a  man  came  to  the  inquiry  room, 
and  great  drops  of  perspiration  stood  upon  his  brow. 
He  was  greatly  excited  and  says,  "Sir,  I  don't  want 
to  talk  with  you  before  these  people.  Can't  we  get 
off  alone?"  I  took  him  off  alone  and  he  says,  "The 
trouble  with  me  is  I  am  a  defaulter."  "Well,"  I 
said,  "can  you  make  restitution?"  "No,  sir;  not 
for  the  whole  amount. "  "How  much  is  it?"  "Fif- 
teen hundred  dollars."  "How  much  can  you  pay 
back?"  "About  nine  hundred  dollars.  But,"  says 
he,  "if  I  pay  that  back,  I  will  not  have  anything  to 
support  my  wife  and  children. ' '  I  says,  ' '  Well,  it 
don't  belong  to  you,  anyhow.  You  don't  want  it. 
No  man  can  prosper  with  stolen  money. "  Says  he, 
"I  want  your  advice ;  I  have  a  chance  to  go  into  busi- 
ness, and  if  I  do  not  give  back  that  money  and  go 
into  business,  I  think  I  can  soon  make  up  the  $1,500 
and  pay  it  back."  I  said,  "No,  that  is  the  devil's 
work.  Don't  take  that  stolen  money  and  go  into 
business.  You  will  not  prosper.  God  will  turn 
your  way  upside  down.  He  will  hedge  it  up.  'He 
will  turn  the  way  of  the  wicked  upside  down.' 
What  you  want  is  to  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter. 
Do  right  and  God  will  bless  you;  but  you  can't  ask 
God's  blessing  with  stolen  money."  I  believe  that 
is  the  reason  so  many  do  not  flourish — they  can't  ask 
God's  blessing  upon  their  business  on  account  of 
some  dishonest  act;  they  have  lied  in  selling  goods 
or  something  else.  Says  he,  "I  will  disgrace  my 
wife  and  children  if  I  come  out  and  confess."  I 
said,    "Not  necessarily.     You  can  do  it  through  a 


REPENTANCE.  373 

tnird  party.  Not  only  that,  but  I  think  those  men 
you  defrauded  would  forgive  you  if  they  saw  true 
signs  of  repentance."  He  said  the  terms  were  too 
hard.  I  said  when  he  went  off,  "The  spirit  of  God 
has  hold  of  you.  You  will  not  sleep  any.  You  will 
not  have  rest  until  you  pay  back  that  money.  It 
will  not  only  burn  in  your  pocket,  but  burn  in  your 
soul. "  He  went  off,  and  the  next  day  he  came  back 
again,  and  he  says,  "Is  there  no  other  way?"  Says 
I,  "There  is  no  other  way.  You  don't  want  any 
other  way.  The  right  way  is  always  the  best 
way."  Still  he  wanted  to  take  some  other 
way.  Says  I,  "Do  right,  and  let  the  consequences 
be  what  they  will."  He  says,  "I  am  afraid  if  I  go 
back  to  those  men  they  will  just  put  me  in  prison." 
I  says,  "You  had  better  go  into  prison  with  a  clear 
conscience  than  be  out  with  a  guilty  one.  You  won't 
have  any  peace  with  a  guilty  conscience.  I  have 
never  heard  of  a  man  being  put  in  prison  that 
wanted  to  do  right.  Now,  let  me  get  those  two  men 
together  and  talk  with  them — see  how  they  feel." 
He  slunk  from  that ;  he  said  he  could  not  do  it.  I 
said,  "You  can  if  you  will."  Finally,  he  consented, 
and  we  sent  for  the  two  men  and  got  them  in  a  room 
alone.  He  brought  to  me  a  great,  long  envelope, 
with  $980.40 — took  the  last  penny  out  of  his  wife's 
pocket-book.  "It  is  all  there,  is  it?"  says  I.  "Every 
cent ;  it  is  all  there. ' '  Those  two  men  were  sitting 
there  in  the  room,  and  I  took  out  the  money  and 
laid  it  down  and  told  them  the  story,  and  great 
tears  trickled  down  their  cheeks.  They  said  they 
would  like  to  forgive  him,  and  I  went  down  and 
brought  him  up.  It  was  one  of  the  sweetest  sights 
of  my  life.     Those  two  men  got  down  and  prayed 


374  REPENTANCE. 

with  that  man.  The  question  was  settled.  Then 
friends  gathered  around  him  and  helped  him.  He 
is  now  a  successful  business  man.  God  forgave  him 
and  his  employers  forgave  him.  He  brought  forth 
fruit  meet  for  repentance. 

I  believe  the  reason  we  do  not  have  better  work 
in  this  country  is  because  there  is  so  much  sham. 
We  do  not  go  down  to  the  bottom  of  things.  O, 
may  God  give  us  a  revival  of  honesty !  Downright, 
upright  honesty!  That  is  what  we  want — right  liv- 
ing! If  it  costs  the  right  eye,  out  with  it!  That  is 
what  repentance  .means.  It  is  not  just  mere  senti- 
ment— going  to  meeting  and  singing  and  praying 
and  having  a  good  time,  not  squaring  our  life 
according  to  Scripture.  God  is  going  to  draw  the 
plummet  line  by  and  by,  and  He  will  have  it  right. 
We  may  deceive  our  friends  and  deceive  one  an- 
other, but  let  us  keep  in  mind  we  cannot  deceive 
God.  If  we  attempt  to  cover  up  some  sin,  some 
dishonest  act,  and  come  to  God  with  our  prayers, 
He  will  not  accept  them.  They  will  not  go  higher 
than  our  heads. 

Some  people  say  they  cannot  get  an  answer  to 
their  prayers.  If  they  would  get  down  to  the  bot- 
tom of  things,  they  would  find  out  the  reason.  They 
would  find  that  there  was  something  not  correct  in 
their  lives.  They  have  not  made  the  work  deep  and 
thorough.  Let  us  pray  for  one  thing  in  Cleveland, 
let  me  ask  the  Christians  in  this  house  to-night  to 
pray  for  one  thing,  and  that  is  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
may  convict  us  all  of  sin.  Let  it  begin  in  the  pul- 
pit. If  there  is  any  one  thing  that  I  want  more  than 
anything  else  it  is  that  God  may  show  me  everything 
in  my  life  that  is  contrary  to  His  will,  and  that  He 


REPENTANCE.  375 

will  give  me  grace  enough  to  turn  from  it.  I  would 
rather  do  it — I  would  rather  live  so  that  God  should 
be  pleased  with  me  than  to  have  the  applause  of  the 
world.  I  would  rather  live  so  that  God  could  say, 
"Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,"  than  just 
to  accumulate  a  little  wealth  down  here  and  have 
the  applause  of  men  for  a  few  short  years,  and  then 
know  that  I  had  not  pleased  Him.  When  will  we 
wake  up  to  the  fact  that  it  is  more  important  to  live 
to  please  God  than  man? 

And  then  how  sweet  our  life  will  be,  how  pure 
our  conscience  will  be,  if  God  has  forgiven  every- 
thing, if  we  have  brought  everything  to  light,  and 
turned  from  our  sins,  and  the  work  has  been  deep 
and  thorough! 
■  But  one  thought  more  before  I  close,  and  that  is, 
what  produces  repentance?  Paul  says  in  the  second 
chapter  of  Romans,  and  the  fourth  verse:  "Or  de- 
spisest  thou  the  riches  of  His  goodness  and  for- 
bearance and  long  suffering;  not  knowing  that  the 
goodness  of  God  leadeth  thee  to  repentance?" 

O,  that  the  Lord  may  open  our  eyes  to-night  and 
show  us  how  good  He  has  been  to  us  all  these 
years! 

Now,  the  world  has  a  false  idea  of  God.  I  will 
venture  to  say  there  is  not  an  unsaved  man  or 
woman  in  this  audience  to-night,  but  has  a  false  idea 
of  God,  and  the  reason  you  cannot  repent  is  because 
you  do  not  turn  from  that  false  idea.  You  have  got 
an  idea  that  God  hates  you — is  an  enemy.  That  is 
as  false  as  any  lie  that  ever  came  out  of  the  pit  of 
hell.  There  is  not  any  truth  in  it.  God  loves  the 
sinner.  He  so  loved  the  world,  He  gave  His  only 
begotten  Son   to  save  sinners.     Christ  died  for  the 


376  REPENTANCE. 

ungodly,  not  the  godly ;  for  the  sinner,  not  for  the 
righteous.  I  want  to  say  to  every  poor  lost  soul  in 
this  audience  to-night :  God  loves  you  with  an  ever- 
lasting love,  although  you  may  have  hated  Him, 
and  trampled  his  laws  under  your  feet.  He  loves 
you  still.  May  the  love  of  God  to-night  lead  you  to 
repentance. 

There  is  a  story  in  English  history  of  King  Henry 
and  his  rebellious  son,  who  rose  up  in  arms  against 
his  father.  The  king  was  at  last  obliged  to  take  his 
army  and  pursue  that  rebellious  son.  He  drove 
him  into  a  walled  city  in  France,  and  while  the  poor 
fellow  was  in  that  city  the  father  was  besieging  it 
for  weeks  and  months.  But  the  son  fell  sick,  and 
while  he  was  sick  he  began  to  think  of  the  goodness 
and  kindness  of  that  father.  At  last  it  broke  his 
heart,  and  he  sent  a  messenger  to  his  father  to  tell 
him  that  he  repented  of  his  past  life  in  rebellion 
and  asked  his  father  to  forgive  him.  But  the  old 
sire  refused.  He  did  not  believe  he  was  sincere. 
When  the  messenger  brought  back  that  message 
that  his  father  would  not  forgive  him,  he  requested 
them  to  take  him  out  of  his  bed  and  lay  him  in 
sack-cloth  and  ashes  and  in  that  condition  he  would 
die.  When  they  told "  his  father  of  it  and  he  went 
to  look  at  that  boy  and  saw  him  in  sack-cloth  and 
ashes,  he  fell  on  his  face  and  cried  as  David  did, 
"O,  my  son,  would  God  I  had  died  for  thee." 

That  father  made  a  mistake.  He  did  not  know 
that  boy's  heart.  But  God  never  makes  any  mis- 
take. O,  sinner,  if  you  ask  Him  to-night  for  par- 
don. He  will  pardon  you.  If  you  want  the  love  of 
God  shed  abroad  in  your  heart  turn  away  from  sin 
and  see  how  quick  He  will  receive  you  and  how 
quick  He  will  bless  you. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 


EXCUSED. 

I  pray  thee  have  me  excused.     Luke  xvi.  ig. 

These  three  men  that  we  read  about  to-night  were 
not  invited  to  hear  some  dry  stupid  sermon  or  lec- 
ture, but  they  were  invited  to  a  feast.  The  gospel 
in  this  parable  is  represented  as  a  feast,  and  there 
was  an  invitation  extended  to  these  three  men  to 
come  to  the  feast.  "And  they  all  with  one  consent 
began  to  make  excuse."  It  does  not  say  that  they 
had  an  excuse,  but  they  made  excuse — manufactured 
one  for  the  occasion. 

Now  excuses  are  as  old  as  man.  The  first  excuse 
that  we  hear  of  was  in  Eden.  The  first  thing  we 
hear  after  the  fall  of  man,  was  man  making  excuse. 
Instead  of  Adam  confessing  his  guilt  like  a  man, 
he  began  to  excuse  himself — justify  himself.  That 
is  what  every  man  is  trying  to  do — justify  himself 
in  his  sins.  Adam  said,  "It  is  this  woman  that  thou 
gavest  me."  He  hid  behind  her — mean,  cowardly 
act.  And  it  really  was  charging  it  back  on  God. 
"It  is  the  woman  that  thou  gavest  me."  Blaming 
God  for  his  sin.  From  the  time  that  Adam  fell 
from  the  summit  of  Eden  to  the  present  time,  man 
has  been  guilty  of  that  sin,  charging  it  back  on  God, 
as  if  God  was  responsible  for  his  sin  and  God  was 

guilty. 

377 


378  EXCUSED. 

Now,  I  venture  to  say  that  if  I  should  go  down 
among  the  congregation  here  to-night,  every  man 
that  has  not  accepted  this  invitation  would  be  ready 
with  an  excuse.  You  have  all  got  excuses.  You 
would  have  one  right  on  the  end  of  your  tongue. 
You  would  be  ready  to  meet  me  the  moment  I  got 
to  you.  If  I  met  that  excuse,  then  you  would  get 
another  and  you  would  hide  behind  that.  Then,  if 
I  drove  you  out  from  behind  that,  you  would  get 
another.  And  so  you  would  go  on,  hiding  behind 
some  excuse — making  some  excuse;  and  if  you 
should  be  cornered  up  and  could  not  think  of 
one,  Satan  would  be  there  to  help  you  make  one. 
That  has  been  his  business  for  the  past  six  thousand 
years.  He  is  very  rjood  to  help  man  make  excuses, 
and  undoubtedly  he  helped  these  three  men  we  read 
of  here  to-night.  No  sooner  do  we  begin  to  preach 
the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  than  men  begin  to 
manufacture  excuses.  They  begin  to  hunt  around 
to  see  if  they  cannot  find  some  reason  to  give  for 
not  accepting  the  invitation.  Excuses  are  the  cradle, 
in  other  words,  that  Satan  rocks  men  off  to  sleep  in. 
He  gets  them  into  that  cradle  of  excuses  that  they 
may  ease  their  consciences. 

But  let  me  say  to  you,  my  friends,  there  is  no  man 
or  woman  in  this  assembly  to-night  that  can  give  an 
excuse  that  will  stand  the  light  of  eternity.  All 
these  excuses  that  men  are  making  are  nothing  but 
refuges  of  lies  after  all.  We  read  in  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah  that  God  shall  sweep  away  these  refuges 
of  lies.  When  a  man  stands  before  God  he  will  not 
be  making  excuses.  His  excuses  will  all  be  gone 
then,  and  he  will  be  speechless. 

We  read  of  that  man  that  got  into  the  feast  with- 


EXCUSED.  379 

out  a  wedding  garment,  and  when  the  Lord  of  the 

feast  came  in  he  saw   the   man   there.       That  man 

perhaps  thought  he   could  get  in  with  the  crowd. 

Some  people  say,   "O,   I  will  go  with  the  crowd. " 

He  thought  he  could  get  in  with  the  crowd,  and  he 

would  not  be  noticed.       But  that  eye  was  keen  to 

detect  one  that  had  not  on  the  wedding  garment. 

Do  not  think   for  a  moment  that  God's  eye  is  not 

upon  you?.   He  knows  how  all  these  excuses  are 

made.     You  cannot  hide  any  thing  from  Him.     You 

may  make  excuses  and  put  on  a  sort  of  garment,  and 

think  you  are  justif}nng  yourself  in  living  away  from 

God  and  not  accepting  this  invitation ;  but  really  it 

is   nothing  that  will  stand    the   light   of   eternity. 

Things  look  altogether  different  when  you  stand 

before  Him, 

Did  you  ever  stop  to  think  what  would  take  place 

in   a  city  like   Cleveland  if  God  should  take  every 

man  and  woman  that  wants  to  be  excused  at  their 

word,  and  should  say,   "I  will  excuse  you."     God 

took  those  three  men  that  we  read  of  at  their  word. 

He  said,  "Not  one  of  them  that  were  bidden  shall 

taste  of  my  supper.  "     They  spurned  the  invitation; 

they  turned   their   backs   upon    it;    and  then    God 

withdrew  the  invitation.       "Not  one  of  them  that 

were  bidden  shall  taste  of  my  supper. "   '  Suppose 

that  that  should  take   place  in  Cleveland,  and  then 

by  a  stroke  of   Providence  he  should  sweep  every 

man    and   woman  in   Cleveland   that    wants   to   be 

excused  from  this  feast  into  eternity.      Suppose  that 

every  man  and  woman  that  wanted  to  be  excused 

from    this    feast    should    die  inside  of  twenty-four 

hours.      I  think  there  would  be  plenty  of  room  in 

this  tabernacle  to-morrow  night  for  all  that  want  to 
22 


380  EXCUSED. 

come.  There  would  be  a  good  many  of  your  stores 
closed  to-morrow.  There  would  be  no  one  to  open 
them.  Merchants,  employes,  clerks  would  all  be 
gone.  Every  saloon  in  Cleveland  would  be  closed 
up.  Every  rum-seller  wants  to  be  excused  from  this 
feast.  He  can't  get  into  the  kingdom  of  God  with  a 
rum  bottle  in  his  hand.  "Woe  be  to  the  man  that 
putteth  the  bottle  to  his  neighbor's  lips."  He 
knows  very  well  that  if  he  accepts  this  invitation  he 
has  got  to  give  up  his  hellish  traffic.  Eyery  blas- 
phemer in  Cleveland  wants  to  be  excused  from  this 
feast,  because  if  he  accepts  this  invitation  he  has 
got  to  give  up  his  blasphemy.  Every  drunkard  in 
Cleveland,  every  harlot,  every  thief,  every  dishonest 
man,  every  dishonest  merchant  would  be  gone. 
They  want  to  be  excused  from  this  feast.  Why? 
Because  they  have  got  to  turn  away  from  their  sins 
ii:  they  accept  of  this  invitation.  The  longer  I  live 
the  more  I  am  convinced  that  the  reason  men  do 
not  come  to  Christ  is  because  they  do  not  want  to 
give  up  sin.  That  is  the  trouble.  It  is  not  their 
intellectual  difficulties.  It  is  quite  popular  for 
people  to  say  that  they  have  got  intellectual  diffi- 
culties ;  but  if  they  would  tell  the  honest  truth  it  is 
some  darling  sin  that  they  are  holding  on  to.  They 
are  not  willing  to  give  up  the  harlot;  they  are  not 
willing  to  give  up  gambling ;  they  are  not  willing 
to  give  up  drinking,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of 
the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life.  That  is  the  trouble. 
It  is  not  their  intellectual  difficulties  as  much  as  it 
is  their  darling  sin.  The  grass  would  soon  be  grow- 
ing in  your  streets  in  Cleveland  if  God  should  take 
every  man  at  his  v/ord  and  excuse  him  from  this 
feast  and  take  him  away.     Things  would  look  alto- 


EXCUSED.  381 

gfether  different  in  your  city  inside  of  a  week  if  God 
should  excuse  you  that  want  to  be  excused.  And 
yet  the  moment  that  God  sends  out  His  invitation 
excuses  just  run  right  in.  "I  pray  thee  have  me 
excused. ' '  That  is  the  cry  to-day.  Man  prepares 
his  feast,  and  there  is  a  great  rush  to  get  the  best 
seats.  God  prepares  his  feast — and  what  a  feast  it 
is !  Think  of  it !  It  is  not  often  that  common  people 
like  you  and  me  get  an  invitation  to  a  royal  feast. 
There  is  many  a  man  that  has  lived  in  Windsor 
Castle  for  fifty  years,  and  has  never  got  sight  of 
Queen  Victoria.  There  are  men  in  London  that 
stand  high,  men  of  wealth,  men  of  position  who 
never  were  invited  into  her  palace.  Men  think  it  is 
a  great  honor  to  be  invited  into  a  king's  palace  or 
the  palace  of  a  queen.  But  here  we  are  invited  to 
the  marriage  of  the  Lamb.  We  are  invited  by  the 
Lord  of  glory  to  come  to  the  marriage  of  His  only 
begotten  son,  and  men  begin  to  make  excuses.  "I 
pray  thee,  have  me  excused." 

Now  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  excuses  that 
these  three  men  gave.  The  first  man  might  have 
been  very  polite.  wSome  men  are  very  polite.  Some 
are  very  gruff,  and  treat  you  with  a  great  deal  of 
scorn  and  contempt.  The  moment  you  begin  to  talk 
to  them  they  say,  "You  attend  to  your  business  and 
I  will  attend  to  mine. ' '  But  I  can  imagine  this  man 
was  a  very  polite  man  and  he  said,  "I  wish  you 
would  take  back  this  message  to  your  Lord,  that  I 
would  like  to  be  at  that  feast.  Tell  him  there  is  not  a 
man  in  the  kingdom  that  would  rather  be  there  than 
myself,  but  I  am  so  situated  that  I  can't  come. 
Just  tell  him  I  have  bought  me  a  piece  of  ground, 
and  that  I  must  needs  go  and  see  it."      Queer  time 


382  EXCUSED. 

to  go  and  see  to  land,  wasn't  it?  Just  at  that  supper 
time.  They  were  invited  to  supper,  you  see.  But 
he  must  needs  go  and  see  it.  He  had  not  made 
a  partial  bargain  and  wanted  to  go  and  close 
the  bargain.  He  did  not  have  that  good  excuse. 
He  had  bought  the  land,  and  he  must  needs  go 
and  see  it.  Could  he  not  go  and  see  this  land  the 
next  morning?  Could  he  not  have  accepted  this 
invitation  and  then  gone  and  seen  his  land?  If  he 
had  been  a  good  business  man,  some  one  has  said, 
he  would  have  gone  and  looked  at  the  land  before 
he  bought  it.  But  the  land  was  already  bought,  and 
the  trade  made.  He  did  not  say,  "I  want  to  get 
the  deed  on  record,  because  I  am  afraid  some  one 
else  will  get  a  deed  of  it,  and  get  it  on  record  first, 
and  I  will  lose  it."  He  had  not  got  that  good  an 
excuse.  The  only  excuse  he  had  was,  "I  have 
bought  me  a  piece  of  ground  and  I  must  needs  go 
and  see  it."  You  will  see  it  was  a  lie  right  on  the 
face  of  it.  It  was  just  manufactured  to  ease  that 
man's  conscience.  He  did  not  want  to  go  to  the 
feast,  and  he  had  not  the  common  honesty  to  come 
out  with  it  and  say,  "I  don't  want  to  go  to  the  feast, 
but  just  take  back  word  that  I  have  bought  me  a 
piece  of  ground  and  I  must  needs  go  and  see  it," 
and  away  he  went.  How  many  men  are  giving 
their  business  as  an  excuse  for  not  accepting  this 
invitation!  You  talk  to  them  about  things  pertain- 
ing to  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  they  tell  you  they 
have  got  to  attend  to  business;  that  business  is  very 
pressing.  It  does  not  say  that  this  was  a  bad  man. 
He  might  have  been  as  moral  as  any  man  in  Cleve- 
land. He  might  have  held  as  high  a  position  as  any 
man  in  Cleveland.  He  might  have  ridden  in  his 
chariot.     He  might  have  been  a  very  liberal  man  to 


EXCUSED.  383 

the  poor.  He  might  have  been  a  very  benevolent 
man.  He  might  have  given  his  substance,  but  he 
neglected  to  accept  this  invitation,  and  Christ  teaches 
us  plainly  that  if  we  neglect  this  salvation  how  shall 
we  escape  the  damnation  of  hell. 

People  say,  "What  have  I  done?  I  have  not  got 
drunk ;  I  have  not  murdered ;  I  have  not  lied ;  I  have 
not  stolen.  What  have  I  done?"  I  will  take  you  on 
the  ground  that  you  have  not  done  anything — I  will 
not  admit  that  for  a  moment,  but  suppose  I  take  you 
on  that  ground.  If  a  man  neglects  salvation  he  will 
be  lost.  You  see  a  man  in  yonder  river,  his  oars 
lying  in  the  bottom  of  his  boat,  and  he  is  out  there 
in  the  current,  his  arms  are  folded,  and  the  current  is 
quietly  drawing  him  toward  the  rapids.  Some  one 
warns  him:  "Say,  friend,  you  are  hastening  toward 
the  rapids."  "No,  I  am  doing  nothing,  sir.  My 
arms  are  folded.  What  have  I  done?"  "But  you 
are  drawing  toward  the  rapids."  "I  tell  you,  sir,  I 
am  not ;  I  am  doing  nothing. ' '  You  may  try  to 
convince  him  but  he  will  be  blind.  So  indeed  he  is 
not  doing  anything,  but  that  current  is  quietly  draw- 
ing him  toward  the  cataract,  and  in  a  few  moments 
he  will  go  over.  Many  a  man  is  flattering  himself 
that  he  is  not  doing  anything,  but  let  him  neglect 
salvation  and  he  is  lost. 

The  next  man's  excuse  was  one  manufactured  for 
the  occasion.  It  was  not  one  whit  better  than  the 
excuse  of  the  first  man:  "Take  back  word  to  thy 
Lord  that  I  cannot  come.  I  have  got  pressing  busi- 
ness. I  have  bought  five  yoke  of  oxen  and  I  must 
needs  go  to  prove  them. "  As  if  he  had  to  prove  his 
oxen  that  night  at  supper  time  He  had  plenty  of 
time  to  prove  his  oxen.     He    had    bought  them. 


384  EXCUSED. 

They  were  in  his  stall.  But  the  fact  was,  he  was 
like  the  first  man ;  he  did  not  want  to  go  and  had  not 
the  common  honesty  to  say  so,  and  so  he  says,  "I 
have  bought  five  yoke  of  oxen,  and  I  must  needs  go 
and  prove  them. ' '  He  must  go  right  off  that  night 
to  prove  them.  That  is  his  excuse.  There  is  not  a 
child  five  years  old  that  cannot  see  that  that  excuse 
is  just  manufactured. 

These  men  began  to  make  excuse.  They  did  not 
have  one — they  manufactured  excuses  to  ease  their 
consciences.  It  was  nothing  but  a  downright  lie ; 
that  is  what  it  was.  Let  us  call  things  by  their  right 
names.  People  think  if  they  can  make  a  sort  of 
plausible  excuse  they  are  justified.  But  these  ex- 
cuses are  nothing  but  refuges  of  lies. 

The  third  man's  excuse  is  more  absurd  than  the 
others;  "I  have  married  me  a  wife,  and  therefore  I 
cannot  come. ' '  Who  likes  to  go  to  a  feast  better 
than  a  young  bride?  He  might  have  taken  his  wife 
with  him.  He  had  no  excuse.  That  was  the  ex- 
cuse he  was  hiding  behind.  "I  have  married  me  a 
wife,  and  therefore  I  cannot  come. ' '  If  his  wife 
would  not  go  with  him,  he  could  let  her  stay  at 
home,  and  he  could  go.  This  has  got  to  be  a  per- 
sonal matter.  We  are  not  going  to  heaven  in  fam- 
ilies, as  I  said  last  night.  It  is  a  thing  between  you 
and  your  God.  The  invitation  was  extended  to  that 
man  as  the  head  of  his  own  house.  He  was  priest 
over  his  own  household,  and  he  had  no  excuse ;  but 
he  just  made  up  that  excuse. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  on  record,  you  might  sa)'', 
against  those  three  men.  You  might  say  there 
were  a  good  many  things  noble  about  those  men. 
It  does  not  say  that  they  were  licentious;  it  does 


EXCUSED.  385 

not  say  that  they  were  drunkards ;  it  does  not  say 
that  they  were  dishonest ;  it  does  not  say  that  they 
were  thieves,  but  they  only  made  excuses  so  as  not 
to  be  at  that  feast.  They  did  not  want  to  accept  of 
the  feast. 

I  notice  some  of  you  smile  as  I  take  up  those  three 
excuses ;  but  I  would  like  to  ask  this  congregation 
this  question:  Have  you  a  better  one?  Come!  I 
see  a  young  man  laughing  down  there.  Have  you 
a  better  excuse  yourself?  Come !  Eighteen  hun- 
dred years  have  rolled  away,  and  they  tell  us  we  are 
living  in  a  very  wise  age,  that  we  are  living  in  a 
very  intellectual  age,  that  men  are  growing  much 
wiser,  and  that  we  know  a  good  deal  more  than  our 
fathers  did;  but  with  all  men's  boasted  knowledge, 
can  you  find  a  man  to-day  who  has  a  better  excuse 
than  those  three  men  had?  During  the  last  three 
years  I  have  spent  most  of  my  time  talking  to  peo- 
ple about  their  salvation — their  individual  difficult- 
ies, and  I  have  yet  to  find  the  first  man  or  the  first 
woman  that  can  give  me  a  better  excuse  than  those 
three  men  had.  I  tell  you  that  man  or  that  woman 
cannot  be  found  to-day.  I  will  defy  any  man  to 
come  forward  to-night  and  give  me  a  better  excuse 
than  those  three  men  had.  The  excuses  men  are 
hiding  behind  to-day  are  fearful.  There  is  not  an 
excuse  that  you  would  dare  to  give  to  God.  Things 
look  altogether  different  when  you  come  to  stand 
before  Him. 

Take  a  piece  of  paper,  if  you  have  it  in  your 
pocket,  and  a  pencil  and  write  down,  "Why  should 
I  serve  the  God  of  this  world?  Second,  Why  should 
I  serve  the  God  of  the  Bible?"  Then  put  down 
your  reasons  why  you  should  serve  the  God  of  this 


386  EXCUSED. 

world,  and  your  reasons  why  you  should  serve 
the  God  of  the  Bible,  and  see  how  it  looks;  because 
it  is  clearly  taught  that  we  either  serve  the  God  of 
this  world  or  the  God  of  heaven.  We  cannot  be 
neutral.  There  is  no  neutrality  about  this  matter. 
We  are  either  for  God  or  against  him.  We  cannot 
serve  God  and  mammon.  We  are  either  serving  the 
God  of  this  world — that  is,  Satan — or  we  are  serving 
the  God  of  heaven.  The  line  is  drawn.  You  may 
not  be  able  to  see  it,  but  God  sees  it.  God  knows 
the  heart  of  every  man  and  woman  in  this  assembly. 
He  knows  all  about  us,  and  He  sees  right  through 
the  excuses  we  make.  He  looks  at  the  heart.  He 
does  not  look  at  the  excuses  you  make.  Those  are 
only  from  the  tongue.  They  are  only  manufactured 
in  the  head.  He  knows  that  the  difficulty  lies  down 
in  the  heart.  It  is  because  you  will  not  come  unto 
Him  It  is  not  because  men  cannot  come ;  it  is  be- 
cause men  set  their  wills  up  against  God's  will,  and 
are  not  willing  to  yield. 

One  of  the  popular  excuses  of  the  present  day  is 
this  good  old  book,  the  Bible.  It  is  amazing  to  hear 
some  men  talk.  I  have  touched  upon  this  a  num- 
ber of  times  since  I  have  come  to  Cleveland,  but  I 
find  as  I  come  out  West  a  good  deal  of  infidelity ; 
men  profess  to  be  infidels.  It  is  astonishing  to  hear 
them  talk  about  the  Bible — something  they  do  not 
know  anything  about.  I  can  find  scarcely  one  of 
them  that  has  ever  looked  into  it  and  read  it,  and 
who  knows  anything  about  it.  They  have  heard 
some  infidel  lecture — some  scoffing,  sneering  man 
come  along  caviling  at  the  Bible,  and  they  have 
heard  some  few  things  that  man  has  said,  and  they 
bring  them  out  on  all  occasions.    They  will  not  look 


ta    to 


EXCUSED.  389 

into  that  Book  and  ask  God  to  help  them  to  under- 
stand it.  If  a  man  will  be  honest  with  God,  God 
will  be  honest  with  him.  There  is  no  trouble  about 
this  Book ;  the  trouble  is  with  the  life. 

Wilmot,  the  great  infidel,  as  he  lay  dying,  put- 
ting his  hand  upon  that  Book,  said,  "The  only  thing 
against  that  Book  is  a  bad  life."  When  a  man  has 
got  a  bad  record  against  him,  he  wants  to  get  that 
Book  out  of  the  way,  because  it  condemns  him ;  that 
is  the  trouble.  The  trouble  is  not  with  the  Book ; 
it  is  with  your  record  and  mine.  Because  that  Book 
condemns  sin  we  want  to  get  it  out  of  the  way.  Men 
do  not  like  to  be  condemned;  that  is  the  trouble. 

Then  men  say  they  cannot  understand  it.  Well, 
you  and  the  Bible  agree  exactly.  A  man  was  tell- 
ing me  some  time  ago  that  he  could  not  understand 
the  Bible.  I  said,  "You  and  the  Bible  agree  ex- 
actly." He  said,  "I  don't  agree  with  the  Bible  at 
all."  "Well,"  I  said,  "you  agree  exactly,"  and  I 
referred  him  to  a  passage  in  the  prophecy  of  Daniel 
— "Many  shall  be  purified  and  made  white  and  tried; 
but  the  wicked  shall  do  wickedly,  and  none  of  the 
wicked  shall  understand."  That  is  what  Scripture 
says.  If  a  man  is  living  in  sin,  God  is  not  going  to 
reveal  to  that  man  his  secrets. 

I  would  like  to  ask  those  men  who  are  giving  this 
Bible  as  an  excuse  for  not  becoming  Christians,  who 
wrote  that  book?  Did  bad  men  write  it?  It  is  a 
very  singular  thing  that  they  should  write  their  own 
condemnation,  isn't  it?  How  that  book  condemns 
bad  men !  Bad  men  would  not  write  their  own  con- 
demnation, would  they?  They  do  not  do  it  nowa- 
days, do  they?     They  are  the  last  ones  to  write  their 


390  EXCUSED. 

own  condemnation.  Well,  if  good  men  wrote  a  bad 
book,  they  could  not  be  good,  could  they? 

Now,  it  seems  to  me,  that  if  a  man  will  stop  to 
think  a  moment  he  will  see  that  the  trouble  is  not 
with  the  book.  The  trouble  is  with  himself.  And 
when  a  man  bows  to  the  will  of  God,  that  book  be- 
comes food  to  his  soul.  He  can  feed  on  it,  then ; 
there  is  something  to  feed  on.  He  gets  life  from 
it ;  he  gets  power,  and  he  gets  something  that  tells 
him  how  he  can  get  victory  over  himself.  I  con- 
sider that  the  greatest  triumph  a  man  can  have  in 
this  world.  A  man  that  knows  how  to  rule  himself 
is  greater  than  he  that  taketh  a  city.  Look  at  the 
misery  and  woe  that  has  come  into  the  world 
through  that  one  door — men  and  women  that  cannot 
control  themselves,  that  cannot  control  their  tem- 
pers, their  lusts,  their  passions,  and  their  appetites. 
That  book  tells  me  how  I  can  get  victory  over  my- 
self; and  it  is  the  only  book  in  the  wide  world  that 
can  tell  a  man  how  to  get  victory  over  himself.  I 
haven't  time  to  dwell  upon  that  excuse  any  longer. 

There  is  another  very  common  excuse,  and  I  have 
heard  it  in  Cleveland  as  miich  as  any:  "Why,"  they 
say,  "Mr,  Moody,  you  know  it  is  a  very  hard  thing 
to  be  a  Christian — a  very  hard  thing."  When  they 
tell  me  that  I  like  to  ask  them,  "Which  is  the  hard- 
est master,  the  devil" — for  we  will  call  him  by  his 
right  name,  because  every  man  that  serves  not  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  God  of  the  Bible,  is  serving  the  god  of  this 
world.     "Now,  which  is  the  easiest  master?" 

Christ  says  that  His  yoke  is  easy  and  His  burden 
is  light.  Now,  you  go  right  along  and  say,  "That 
is  a  lie."     You  don't  say  it  right  out  in  plain  Eng- 


EXCUSED.  391 

lish,  but  we  may  as  well  talk  plainly  to-night.  When 
you  say  it  is  hard  to  be  a  Christian  you  say  that  God 
is  a  liar ;  that  it  is  an  easier  thing  to  serve  the  god  of 
this  world  than  it  is  the  God  of  the  Bible.  Now,  I 
want  to  say  that  I  consider  that  one  of  the  greatest 
lies  that  ever  came  out  of  the  pit  of  hell;  and  how 
Satan  can  stand  up  in  this  nineteenth  century  and 
make  men  believe  he  is  an  easier  master  than  the 
God  of  heaven,  is  one  of  the  greatest  mysteries  of 
the  present  day. 

"The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard. "  Blot  it 
out  if  you  can.  Close  up  that  book,  and  you  will 
see  the  evidence  of  that  fact  all  around  you.  There 
is  not  a  day  passes  but  you  can  read  upon  the  pages 
of  the  daily  papers,  "The  way  of  the  transgressor 
is  hard. ' '  I  wish  I  could  drive  that  lie  back  into 
hell  where  it  came  from. 

You  go  over  to  the  Tombs  in  New  York  city  and 
you  will  find  a  little  iron  bridge  running  from  the 
police  court  where  the  men  are  tried  right  in  the 
cell.  I  think  the  New  York  officials  have  not  been 
noted  for  their  piety  in  your  time  and  mine ;  but 
they  had  put  up  there  in  iron  letters  on  that  bridge, 
"The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard. "  They  know 
that  is  true.  Blot  it  out  if  you  can.  God  Almighty 
said  it.  It  is  true.  "The  way  of  the  transgressor  is 
hard."  On  the  other  side  of  that  bridge  they  put 
these  words,  ' '  A  bridge  of  sighs. ' '  I  said  to  one  of 
the  officers,  "What  did  you  put  that  up  there  for?" 
He  said  that  most  of  the  young  men  (for  most  of 
the  criminals  are  young  men.  "The  wicked  don't 
live  out  their  days" — Put  that  in  with  it) — he  said 
most  of  the  young  men  as  they  passed  over  that  iron 
bridge  went  over  it  weeping.     So  they  called  it  the 


392  EXCUSED. 

Bridge  of  Sighs.  "What  made  j^ou  put  that  other 
there — 'The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard?'  " 
"Well,"  he  said,  "it  is  hard.  I  think  if  you  had 
anything  to  do  with  this  prison  you  would  believe 
that  text,  'The  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard.'  " 

If  a  man  will  just  look  around  him  and  keep  in 
mind  this  one  truth,  "The  way  of  the  transgressor 
is  hard,"  he  will  be  thoroughly  convinced  inside  of 
twenty-four  hours  that  that  passage  of  Scripture  is 
true.  It  is  not  that  God's  service  is  hard.  The 
trouble  with  men  is  they  are  trying  to  serve  God 
with  the  old  Adam  nature.  They  are  trying  to 
serve  God  before  they  are  born  of  God.  Now^  to 
tell  a  man  in  the  flesh  to  serve  God  in  the  spirit, 
who  is  a  Spirit,  I  would  just  as  soon  tell  a  man 
to  try  to  jump  over  the  moon  and  expect  him  to 
do  it.  He  cannot  do  it.  The  natural  man  is  not 
subject  to  the  law  of  God  and  neither  indeed  can 
be.  You  are  not  to  try  to  serve  Gou  until  you  are 
born  of  God,  until  you  are  born  again,  born  from 
above,  until  you  are  born  of  the  Spirit ;  and  when  a 
man  is  born  of  the  Spirit  the  yoke  is  easy  and  the 
burden  is  light.  I  have  been  in  the  service  upwards 
of  twenty  years,  and  I  want  to  testify  to-night  that 
my  Master  is  not  a  hard  Master.  What  say  you 
ministers  here  to-night?  Do  you  find  him  a  hard 
Master?     Speak    out.      I  thought  you  would  say  so. 

Ah,  my  friends,  He  is  not  a  hard  Master.  I  want 
to  have  you  remember  that.  No,  He  is  not  a  hard 
Master.  That  is  one  of  the  lies  coming  from  the 
pit.  "My  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light. " 
When  a  man  submits  his  heart  and  will  to  God — 
takes  Christ  into  his  heart  and  lives  a  life  of  faith, 
it  is  delightful. 


EXCUSED.  393 

Now,  I  will  tell  you  a  good  way  to  get  at  this. 
Put  you  people  into  a  jury  box.  Just  imagine  you 
are  on  a  jury  to-night.  I  will  take  the  most  faithful 
follower  the  Lord  Jesus  has  got  in  Cleveland.  I 
don't  know  who  the  person  is,  it  may  be  a  man  or 
woman  that  the  papers,  perhaps,  have  no  record  of. 
God  knows  where  His  loved  ones  are.  It  may  be 
some  poor  person  off  in  some  dark  street,  but  it  is 
one  who  has  great  faith  and  walks  with  God,  whose 
life  is  as  pure  and  spotless  and  blameless  as  any  per- 
son that  you  can  find;  one  that  has  been  living  with 
Jesus  Christ,  say  fifty  years.  Let  that  person  come 
up  on  this  platform  to-night  and  speak  out  and 
testify.  You  will  see  in  his  face  that  he  has  not  had 
a  hard  Master.  There  will  be  no  wrinkles  in  that 
brow.  There  will  be  light  in  the  eye,  there  will  be 
peace  stamped  upon  that  brow,  joy  beaming  from 
that  countenance.  He  need  not  speak;  let  that  per- 
son stand  here  and  by  his  face  he  will  show  he  has 
had  a  good  Master  and  an  easy  Master. 

Now,  find  the  most  faithful  follower  that  the  devil 
has  got  in  Cleveland.  Let  him  or  her  come  up  here. 
Ah!  you  need  not  speak.  I  think  you  would  say 
"that  is  enough."  You  can  tell  by  the  looks,  for 
the  devil  puts  his  mark  upon  his  own.  He  stamps 
the  mark  deep.  Men  may  try  to  get  rid  of  it,  but 
they  carry  the  mark.  And  the  Lord  Jesus  puts  his 
stamp  upon  his  own.  You  take  the  two  and  draw 
the  contrast  and  see  if  that  lie  that  has  come  from 
Satan  is  not  as  great  a  lie  as  ever  was  told — that 
our  Lord  is  a  hard  Master.  When  people  say  they 
would  like  to  become  a  Christian,  but  it  is  a  hard 
thing  to  be  a  Christian,  they  virtually  say  God  is  a 
hard  Master  and  Satan  is  an  easy  one. 


394  EXCUSED. 

Now  do  you  think  it  easy  to  go  against  your  own 
convictions?  Because  that  is  what  men  do.  They 
have  to  stifle  conscience  to  serve  the  god  of  this 
world  and  turn  the  back  on  the  God  of  the  Bible. 
Do  you  think  it  is  an  easy  thing  to  go  against  your 
own  judgment?  For  if  a  man  will  just  stop  and  con- 
sult his  judgment,  his  judgment  will  tell  him  that 
the  safest,  and  wisest,  and  best  thing  he  can  do  is 
to  believe  on  the  God  of  the  Bible.  Is  it  an  easy 
thing  to  go  against  the  advice  and  wishes  of  the  best 
friends  you  have  got?  There  is  not  a  person  in  this 
congregation  to-night  that  has  got  a  true  friend  that 
would  not  advise  him  to  serve  the  God  of  heaven. 
A  man  or  woman  that  would  advise  you  to  serve  the 
god  of  this  world  would  be  the  worst  enemy  you 
could  have.  They  would  make  the  world  dark  and 
bitter.  Is  it  an  easy  thing  to  trample  a  mother's 
prayers  under  your  feet?  to  break  a  mother's  heart 
and  send  her  dov/n  to  an  untimely  grave?  That  is 
easy,  is  it?  Ah !  many  a  man  has  done  it.  You  call 
that  easy.  Is  it  easy  to  go  against  the  very  best 
counsel  and  advice  you  have  from  the  best  and  most 
loved  friends  you  have  got?  Hear  what  the  Master 
said  to  Saul:  "Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me? 
It  is  hard  for  thee" — he  did  not  talk  about  its  being 
hard  for  the  disciples  that  Saul  was  going  to  put  in 
prison,  and,  perhaps,  have  them  stoned  to  death  like 
Stephen.  It  was  not  as  hard  for  Stephen  to  be 
stoned  to  death  as  it  was  for  Saul  to  persecute  him. 
"Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me?  It  is  hard 
for  thee  to  kick  against  the  pricks."  It  is  hard  for 
a  man  to  contend  with  his  Maker.  It  is  hard  for  a 
man  to  fight  against  the  God  of  the  Bible.  It  is  an 
unequal  controversy.     It  is  an  unequal  battle,  and 


EXCUSED.  395 

God  is  going  to  have  the  victory.  It  is  folly  for  a 
man  to  attempt  to  fight  against  the  God  of  that 
Bible. 

Mr.  Spurgeon  uses  this  parable  of  a  tyrant  order- 
ing a  subject  into  his  presence  and  saying  to  him : 
"What  is  your  occupation?"  "I  am  a  blacksmith." 
"Well,"  says  he,  "I  want  you  to  go  and  make  a 
chain  a  certain  length, ' '  and  he  gave  him  nothing 
to  make  it  with,  "and  on  a  certain  day  I  want  you 
to  bring  it  into  my  presence."  That  day  came. 
The  blacksmith  appeared  with  his  chain.  The 
tyrant  says:  "Take  that  chain  and  make  it  twice 
that  length."  He  took  it,  worked  a  long  time  and 
made  it  twice  the  length,  and  brought  it  back.  The 
tyrant  says:  "Take  that  chain  and  make  it  twice  the 
length."  He  made  it  twice  the  length  and  he  had 
to  get  friends  to  help  him  get  in  the  presence  of  the 
tyrant,  and  when  he  brought  it  back  the  tyrant  says 
to  his  men  standing  around,  "Take  that  man  and 
bind  him  hand  and  foot  and  cast  him  into  a  dun- 
geon;" and,  says  Mr.  vSpurgeon,  "That  is  what  every 
man  that  is  serving  the  god  of  this  world  is  doing 
— forging  the  chain  that  is  going  to  bind  him. ' '  A 
man  goes  into  a  saloon  and  takes  a  social  glass. 
You  step  up  and  tell  that  man  of  his  danger ;  that 
he  is  binding  himself,  and  that  by  and  by  he  will  be 
bound  hand  and  foot,  and  he  will  laugh  you  to 
scorn  and  mock  you ;  but  he  goes  on  adding  link 
after  link  to  that  chain.  By  and  by  the  tyrant  has 
got  him  bound,  and  he  says:  "Now,  let  us  see  you 
assert  your  freedom.  "  Men  say  they  don't  want  to 
give  up  their  freedom.  There  is  no  freedom  until 
a  man  knows  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.       A  man  is  a 


396  EXCUSED. 

slave   to   sin,   to  his  passions  and  lusts  until  Christ 
snaps  the  fetters  and  sets  him  free. 

There  was  a  man  I  used  to  know  in  Chicago  that 
I  talked  to  a  great  many  times  about  drinking.  He 
was  a  business  man.  He  used  to  say:  "I  can  stop 
when  I  please."  One  night  I  went  out,  and  my 
family  heard  a  strange  noise.  We  lived  on  the  cor- 
ner. They  heard  him  coming  down  the  side  street 
and  he  made  an  unearthly  noise,  and  my  wife  said 
to  the  servants,  "Are  the  doors  locked?"  He  came 
around  to  the  front  door  and  tried  to  burst  the  door 
open.  My  wife  says,  "What  do  you  want?"  "Oh," 
he  says,  "I  want  to  see  your  husband."  "Well,  he 
has  gone  down  to  the  meeting. ' '  Away  he  started. 
I  was  walking  down  to  the  church  and  he  went  by 
me.  He  was  running  so  fast  he  could  not  stop. 
He  went  on  a  rod  or  two  and  came  back.  The  poor 
fellow  was  nearly  frightened  out  of  his  life.  He 
says,  "I  have  got  to  die  to-night."  "Oh,  no,  you 
are  not  going  to  die. "  "I  have  got  to  die  to-night. ' ' 
"Why,"  says  I,  "what  is  the  trouble?"  and  I  found 
the  man  had  drank  so  much  that  he  was  under  the 
power  of  the  enemy.  I  saw  what  his  trouble  was. 
"Why,"  he  says,  "Satan  is  coming  to  my  house 
to-night  to  take  me  to  hell,"  and  says  he,  "I  have 
got  to  go. "  I  begged  of  him  to  let  me  stay  till  one 
o'clock.  He  told  me  at  one  o'clock  he  will  be  back 
after  me.  I  said,  "He.  will  not  come  after  you." 
"He  will;  there  is  no  chance  of  my  getting  away 
from  him.  He  is  coming!"  Well,  I  couldn't  con- 
vince that  man.  Poor  man !  He  had  been  serving 
the  god  of  this  world,  and  now  he  was  reaping  what 
he  had  been  sowing.  On  that  night  I  had  six  men 
come  to  that  man's  house  and  at  one  o'clock  those 


EXCUSED.  397 

six  men  could  not  hold  him.  "Look  there!  see 
him!  There  they  are!  They  are  after  me!  He  is 
taking  me !  He  is  going  to  take  me  to  hell !  He  is 
after  me!"  I  thought  that  man  would  really  die. 
Poor  man!  He  is  one  of  those  men  that  thought 
God  a  hard  master  and  the  devil  was  one  that  was 
easy.  That  is  the  way  the  devil  serves  his  subjects. 
Reaping  time  is  coming.  Poor  man,  he  suffered 
untold  agonies  that  night.  Yet  men,  with  all  these 
witnesses  around  them,  will  go  on  drinking.  A 
young  man  will  go  from  this  Tabernacle  to-night, 
and  go  down  to  a  saloon  and  order  a  glass  and  drink, 
and  go  on  drinking,  until  by  and  by  delirium  seizes 
him  and  the  snakes  crawl  around  his  body,  and 
would  seem  as  if  death  would  lay  right  hold  of  him. 
I  can't  describe  it.  It  would  take  some  of  these  men 
that  have  been  there  to  tell  you  about  it.  Oh,  tell  me 
that  the  devil  is  an  easy  master  and  that  God  is  a 
hard  one!  Away  with  that  lie;  away  with  that 
excuse.  My  friends,  never  give  it  as  long  as  you 
live.     It  is  false. 

When  I  was  in  Paris  I  saw  a  little  oil  painting, 
only  about  a  foot  square ;  it  was  at  the  Paris  Exposi- 
tion in  1867.  I  was  going  through  the  Art  Gallery, 
and  on  that  painting  there  was  a  little  piece  of 
white  paper  that  attracted  my  attention.  I  went 
and  looked  at  that  white  paper,  and  it  said,  "Sow- 
ing Tares,"  and  there  was  the  most  hideous  counte- 
nance I  think  I  ever  saw.  A  man  was  taking  out 
a  handful  of  seed,  sowing  tares  all  around  him,  and 
wherever  a  tare  dropped  there  grew  up  some  vile 
reptile,  and  they  were  crawling  up  his  body  and  all 
around  him.  Off  in  the  distance  was  a  dark  thicket, 
and  prowling  around  the  borders  of  that  forest  were 


398  EXCUSED. 

wild  beasts,  and  that  hellish  and  fiendish  look! 
What  a  fearful  thing  it  is  for  a  man  to  sow  tares 
when  he  is  going  to  reap  them.  And  yet  man 
goes  on  sowing  with  a  liberal  hand,  and  laughs  and 
scoffs  when  we  warn  him  and  tell  him  what  he  is 
coming  to  by  and  by.  The  papers  are  full  of  it.  I 
sometimes  think  these  papers  ought  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  people — ought  to  warn  them  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come. 

Look  at  that  case  we  have  just  had  in  a  court  in 
New  Jersey.  Look  at  that  poor  man.  For  four 
long  days  the  jury  has  been  out.  I  don't  know 
when  my  heart  has  been  more  touched  than  when  I 
read  that  scene  in  court,  when  those  little  children 
climbed  up  on  their  father's  knee  and  said,  "Papa, 
papa,  come  home.  Mamma  cries  so  much  now  you 
are  away."  The  law  had  him.  Poor  man!  He 
reaped  what  he  sowed.  He  had  an  uncontrollable 
temper.  He  took  his  weapon  and  shot  down  a 
coachman  because  he  got  mad  with  him.  He  never 
will  get  over  it.  He  never  can  step  back  into  the 
place  where  he  was.  The  jury  may  acquit  him. 
Poor  man ;  he  has  got  to  reap  a  bitter,  bitter  reap- 
ing; what  an  awful  thing  sin  is;  and  yet  men  will 
stand  up  with  all  these  facts  around  them  and  tell 
you  God  is  a  hard  master  and  the  devil  an  easy  one. 

Let  us  look  at  the  scene  in  the  court.  A  young 
man  just  coming  into  manhood,  twenty-one,  promis- 
ing, talented,  gifted,  beautiful  young  man,  an  only 
son ;  but  he  has  been  out  drinking,  and  in  a  drunken 
spree  helped,  kill  a  man,  and  now  he  is  on  trial  for 
his  life.  In  that  court  sit  his  father  and  mother 
and  three  lovely  sisters.  That  is  the  only  brother 
they  have  got.     That  is  the  only  son  they  have  got. 


EXCUSED.  399 

The  jury  bring  in  the  verdict,  guilty;  the  man  is 
sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  life. 

And  with  all  these  facts  people  stand  up  and  say 
God  is  a  hard  master  and  the  devil  is  an  easy  one. 
O,  that  the  God  of  heaven  may  open  our  eyes 
to-night  to  show  us  how  wicked  it  is  to  give  these 
excuses,  and  that  we  will  have  to  answer  for  them 
at  the  bar  of  God — for  a  person  with  an  open  Bible 
to  say  that  God  is  a  hard  master  and  that  Satan  is 
an  easy  one. 

I  remember  of  closing  a  young  men's  meeting  in 
Chicago  a  few  years  ago,  when  a  young  man  got  up 
and  said,  "Mr.  Moody,  would  you  allow  me  to  say  a 
few  words?"  And  I  said,  "Say  on."  "Well,"  said 
he,  "I  want  to  say  to  these  young  men,  that  if  they 
have  friends  that  care  for  them,  and  friends  that 
love  them,  and  that  are  praying  for  them — I  want 
to  say  you  had  better  treat  them  kindly,  for  you 
will  not  always  have  them.  I  want  to  tell  you  some- 
thing in  my  own  experience.  I  was  an  only  son, 
and  I  had  a  very  godly  father  and  mother.  No 
young  man  in  Chicago  had  a  better  father  and 
mother  than  I  had ;  and  because  I  was  an  only  child, 
I  suppose,  they  were  very  anxious  for  my  salvation^ 
and  they  used  to  plead  with  me  to  come  to  Christ. 
My  father  many  a  time  at  the  family  altar  used  to 
break  down  in  his  attempt  to  pray  for  his  only  boy. 
At  last  my  father  died,  and  after  my  father  died, 
my  mother  became  more  anxious  than  ever  that  I 
should  become  a  Christian.  Sometimes  she  would 
come  and  put  her  loving  arms  around  my  neck  and 
say,  'My  boy,  if  you  were  only  a  Christian,  I  would 
be  so  happy.  If  you  would  take  your  father's  place 
at  the  family  worship,  and  help  me  worship  God,  it 


400  EXCUSED. 

would  cheer  your  mother. '  I  used  to  push  her  away 
and  say,  'Mother,  don't  talk  to  me  that  way;  I  don't 
want  to  become  a  Christian  yet,  I  want  to  see  some- 
thing of  the  world. '  Sometimes  I  would  wake  iip  in 
the  night  and  hear  my  mother  praying,  'O,  God, 
save  my  boy'!'  and  it  used  to  trouble  me,  and  at  last 
I  ran  away  to  get  away  from  my  mother's  influence, 
and  away  from  her  prayers.  I  became  a  wanderer. 
I  did  not  let  her  know  where  I  went.  When  I  did 
hear  from  home  indirectly,  I  heard  that  that  mother 
was  sick.  I  knew  what  it  meant.  I  knew  it  was 
my  conduct  that  was  crushing  that  mother  and 
breaking  her  heart,  and  I  thought  I  would  go  home 
and  ask  her  forgiveness.  Then  the  thought  came 
that  if  I  did  I  would  have  to  become  a  Christian, 
and  my  proud  heart  would  not  yield.  I  would  not 
go.  Months  went  on,  and  I  heard  again  indirectly. 
I  believe  that  if  my  mother  had  known  where  I  was 
she  would  have  come  to  me.  I  believe  she  would 
have  gone  around  the  world  to  find  her  boy.  And 
when  I  heard  that  she  was  worse,  the  thought  came 
over  me  that  she  might  not  recover,  and  I  thought 
that  I  would  go  home  and  cheer  her  lonely  heart. 
There  was  no  railway  in  the  town,  and  I  had  to 
take  the  stage.  I  got  into  town  about  dark.  The 
moon  had  just  begun  to  shine.  My  mother  lived 
back  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  hotel,  and  I 
started  back  on  foot,  and  on  my  way  I  had  to  go  by 
the  village  grave-yard.  When  I  got  to  it  I  thought 
I  would  go  and  see  if  there  was  a  new-made  grave. 
I  can't  tell  why,  but  my  heart  began  to  droop,  and 
as  I  drew  near  that  spot  I  trembled.  By  the  light 
of  the  moon  I  saw  a  new-made  grave.  For  the  first 
time  in  my  life  this  question  came  stealing  over  me. 


EXCUSED.  401 

Who  is  goinjj  to  pray  for  my  lost  soul  now?  Father 
has  gone  and  mother  is  dead.  They  are  the  only 
two  that  ever  cared  for  me,  the  only  two  that  ever 
prayed  for  me.  I  took  up  the  earth  and  saw  that 
the  grave  was  a  new-made  grave ;  I  saw  that  my 
mother  had  just  been  laid  away;  and,  young  men,  I 
spent  that  night  by  my  mother's  grave.  I  did  not 
leave  it  until  daybreak ;  but  as  the  morning  sun 
came  up,  right  there  by  my  mother's  grave,  I  gave 
myself  away  to  my  mother's  God,  and  then  and 
there  settled  the  great  question  of  eternity,  and  I 
became  a  child  of  God.  I  never  will  forgive  myself. 
I  murdered  that  sainted  mother." 

Poor  man !  He  was  reaping  what  he  sowed.  Tell 
me  that  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  easy !  Tell 
me  that  God  is  a  hard  Master,  and  that  the  devil  is 
an  easy  one!  Young  men,  take  the  God  of  your 
mother;  take  the  God  of  the  Bible  to  be  your  God. 
Set  your  faces  like  a  flint  towards  heaven  to-night, 
and  it  will  be  the  best  night  of  your  life.  I  wish  I 
could  say  something  to  induce  you  to  come  to 
Christ.  I  wish  I  could  see  souls  pressing  into  the 
kingdom  of  God.  May  the  God  of  all  grace  touch 
every  heart  here  to-night. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

And  they  laid  him  in  a  manger,  because  there  was  no  room 
for  them  in  the  inn. — Luke  ii.  7. 

For  four  thousand  years  the  Jews  had  been  look- 
ing for  this  child.  Away  back  in  Eden  before 
Adam  and  Eve  were  driven  out,  God  had  promised 
that  the  seed  of  the  woman  should  bruise  the  ser- 
pent's head.  And  from  Adam,  all  along  down  the 
ages,  they  had  been  looking  out  into  the  mist  and 
into  the  future  for  this  child.  The  prophets  had 
prophesied  of  his  coming  and  the  nation  had  been 
in  expectation.  They  were  studying  at  that  very 
time  the  prophecies  to  find  out  when  he  would  ap- 
pear. And  the  first  thing  that  we  hear  when  He 
comes  to  this  country,  there  was  not  room  for  Him 
in  that  little  inn  at  Bethlehem.  He  might  have 
come  with  all  the  pomp,  and  the  glory  and  grandeur 
of  the  upper  world.  Perhaps  if  He  had  come  with 
the  glory  of  the  angels,  and  the  glory  of  the  Father, 
and  His  own  glory  as  He  will  by  and  by,  the  nation 
would  have  received  Him  then,  because  there  would 
have  been  something  that  would  have  pleased  the 
flesh.  •  But  the  idea  of  His  coming  in  such  lowli- 
ness, the  idea  of  His  coming  in  such  humility — the 
natural  man  did  not  like  it. 

Just  think  for  a  moment  what  He  came  for :  He 
402 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM.'  403 

came  to  give  rest  to  the  weary ;  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost ;  to  give  sight  to  the  blind ;  to 
help  those  that  needed  help ;  to  reveal  the  Father ; 
to  bring  peace  where  there  was  trouble ;  to  heal  the 
broken-hearted.  And  yet  there  was  not  room  for 
him! 

When  the  Prince  of  Wales  visited  this  country,  a 
few  years  ago,  there  was  plenty  of  room  for  him. 
There  was  not  any  part  of  this  nation  that  was  not 
glad  to  give  him  a  welcome.  Every  city  was  anx- 
ious that  he  should  visit  them.  Every  town  and 
village  and  hamlet  was  open,  and  would  have  given 
him  a  royal  welcome  if  he  would  have  come  to  their 
place.  When  the  princes  of  Europe  have  come  to 
this  country,  what  a  welcome  they  have  had.  'Al- 
though this  is  a  republican  government,  yet  we  have 
been  willing  to  give  the  princes  of  earth  a  welcome. 
And  yet  when  the  Prince  of  Heaven  came  down 
into  this  world,  what  a  welcome  did  He  receive? 
They  laid  Him  in  the  manger, because  there  was  no 
room  for  Him  in  the  inn.  But  I  can  imagine  some 
one  says:  "They  did  not  know  Him.  If  they  had 
known  who  He  was  they  would  have  given  Him  a 
welcome."  I  think  you  are  greatly  mistaken,  be- 
cause we  read  that  when  the  wise  men  arrived  from 
the  East  in  Jerusalem,  and  said  to  the  king,  "Where 
is  He  that  is  born  King  of  the  Jews?"  not  only  Her- 
od, but  all  Jerusalem  was  thrown  into  trouble. 
Herod  told  those  wise  men  to  go  down  into  Bethle- 
hem and  inquire  diligently  about  the  young  child, 
and  bring  him  word,  that  he,  too,  might  go  down 
and  worship  the  child.  A  lying  hypocrite!  He 
wanted  to  slay  the  child. 

Not  only  Jerusalem  closed  her  doors  against  Him, 


404  NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

but  when  He  went  back  to  Nazareth,  where  He  was 
brought  up,  and  brought  the  best  news  that  was 
ever  brought  to  any  town — when  He  went  back  to 
Nazareth  with  the  glorious  gospel  of  God,  Nazareth 
did  not  want  Him.  They  took  Him  out  of  the  Syn- 
agogue ;  they  took  Him  to  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and 
they  would  have  hurled  Him  into  perdition  if  they 
could.  They  did  not  want  Him.  There  was  not 
room  for  Him. 

But,  my  friends,  it  is  a  very  common  saying  now 
that  the  world  has  grown  wiser  and  better,  that  we 
have  been  improving,  and  that  if  Christ  should  re- 
turn, things  would  be  different,  that  we  are  in  light, 
and  that  He  came  in  a  dark  age,  that  He  was  not 
then  welcome,  but  He  would  be  now. 

But  I  would  like  to  ask  you  to  think  for  a  little 
while.  What  nation  would  give  Him  a  welcome 
now?  Do  you  know  of  any?  They  call  America  a 
Christian  nation,  but  has  America  room  for  the  Son 
of  God?  Does  America  want  Him?  Suppose  it 
could  be  put  to  a  popular  vote ;  do  you  suppose  this 
nation  would  vote  to  have  Him  come  and  reign? 
He  would  not  carry  a  ward  in  this  city;  you  know 
it  very  well.  He  would  not  carry  a  town  or  a  pre- 
cinct in  the  United  States;  you  know  it  very  well. 
A  great  many  of  your  so-called  Christians  would 
say,  "We  don't  want  Him,  we  are  not  ready." 
Things  would  have  to  be  straightened  up,  and  there 
would  be  a  great  change  if  Christ  should  come. 
The  way  men  are  doing  business,  I  think,  would 
have  to  be  straightened  out.  Business  men  don't 
want  Him.  You  put  it  to  the  commercial  men  of 
the  present  day,  and  do  you  think  they  would  want 
Him?     Do  you  think  all  the  tricks  in  trade  would 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM.  407 

be  carried  on  if  He  were  here?  Do  you  think  all 
this  rascality  that  is  going  on  at  the  present  day 
under  the  garb  of  commerce — a  great  many  very 
noble  men  are  engaged  in  it — but  do  you  think  they 
want  Him  to  come?  When  He  comes  He  is  going 
to  reign  in  righteousness.  I  would  like  to  have  you 
tell  me  to-night  of  any  class  of  people  that  would 
like  to  have  Him  come  back.  Do  you  think  your 
politicians  would  want  Him?  Do  you  think  the 
Republican  party  would  want  Him?  Do  you  think 
they  would  give  Him  a  welcome?  Do  you  think 
the  Democratic  party  would  want  Him?  What 
Vv^ould  they  do  with  Him?  They  have  not  got  room 
for  Him;  they  do  not  want  Him.  All  this  rascality 
that  is  carried  on  in  politics  would  have  to  be  done 
away  with  if  He  came  to  reign  in  righteousness. 

Does  your  fashionable  society  want  Him — what 
they  call  the  "upper  ten"  of  the  present  time?  Go 
up  on  one  of  your  avenues  to  some  fashionable 
party,  and  see  it  they  want  Him.  Begin  to  talk  there 
about  a  personal  Christ,  and  how  precious  He  is  to 
the  soul,  and  you  will  not  be  invited  a  second  timxe. 
They  do  not  want  Him,  and  they  do  not  want  you 
if  you  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus. 

The  fact  is,  there  is  not  any  room  down  here  for 
the  Son  of  God.  Let  a  man  get  up  in  Congress  and 
say,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  and  they  will  hoot  him 
out  of  it.  Do  you  think  all  this  trickery  and  rascal- 
ity that  is  carried  on  in  halls  of  legislation  would  go 
on  if  Christ  should  reign  in  righteousness — men 
selling  their  votes,  men  buying  votes? 

If  you  will  stop  and  think  a  little  while  you  will  find 
that  not  only  this  country,  but  no  other  country,  wants 
Him.  Do  you  think  England  wants  Him?  I  think 
23 


408  NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

that  hellish  traffic  of  liquor  would  have  to  be  given 
up ;  the  opium  trade  with  China,  and  a  great  many 
other  things  would  have  to  be  given  up.  That  is 
called  a  Christian  nation.  Let  a  man  get  up  in  Par- 
liament and  say,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  and  he 
would  be  hooted  down.  The  cry  of  the  nation  is, 
"Who  is  the  Lord  that  we  should  obey  Him?"  The 
voice  of  the  king  of  Egypt  has  been  echoing  through 
the  world  ever  since.  The  world  has  not  room  for 
Christ. 

When  He  was  here  and  went  from  village  to  vil- 
lage, and  from  town  to  town.  He  did  not  receive  a 
welcome ;  they  did  not  want  Him. 

Eighteen  hundred  years  have  passed  since  then ; 
His  Gospel  has  been  proclaimed  over  hill  and  dale ; 
men  have  gone  across  seas  and  deserts  and  into  all 
lands  proclaiming  the  Gospel  of  Christ  Jesus,  and 
yet  there  are  a  great  many  people  right  within  the 
sound  of  the  Gospel  that  do  not  want  Him.  The 
moment  that  you  begin  to  preach  about  the  Son  of 
God  they  put  on  a  long  face,  as  if  you  had  brought 
them  a  death  warrant ;  makes  them  gloomy.  Oh ! 
how  the  devil  has  deceived  the  world!  How  men 
are  under  the  power  of  the  god  of  his  world! 
Jesus  Christ  did  not  come  to  cast  us  down,  but  to 
lift  us  up.  He  did  not  come  to  make  life  dark  and 
gloomy;  he  came  to  make  life  sweet  and  beautiful; 
and  when  people  make  room  in  their  hearts  for  the 
Son  of  God  he  will  light  them  up.  The  heart  that 
is  sad  and  cast  down  will  be  light  and  joyful.  He 
came  to  bless  the  world.  He  that  was  rich  became 
poor  for  your  sake  and  mine.  He  might  have  come 
with  all  the  pomp  and  glory  of  that  upper  world. 
He  might  have  been  born  in  a  palace  and  fed  with 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM.  409 

a  golden  spoon.  But  He  passed  by  palaces  and 
went  into  a  manger,  that  He  might  get  down  into 
sympathy  with  the  poorest  and  the  lowest.  His 
cradle  was  a  borrowed  one.  The  guest  chamber 
where  they  instituted  the  supper  was  a  borrowed 
one. 

The  beast  upon  which  He  rode  into  Jerusalem 
was  a  borrowed  one.  The  only  time  we  hear  of 
His  riding  was  on  a  borrowed  beast.  We  find  also 
that  the  sepulcher  that  they  laid  Him  in  was  a  bor- 
rowed one.  The  house  He  lived  in  was  a  hired  one 
or  a  borrowed  one.  He  that  was  rich  and  had  all 
the  glory  of  that  upper  world,  who  Himself  created 
the  world,  became  poor  for  your  sake  and  mine. 

He  laid  aside  all  the  honor  and  glory  He  had  in 
that  upper  world;  He  laid  aside  those  robes  and 
came  down  here  and  tasted  of  poverty  for  your  sake 
and  mine,  and  yet  the  world  turn  up  their  noses 
and  say,  "I  have  no  desire  for  Him;  I  don't  want 
Him."  There  is  a  passage  in  the  7th  of  John — I 
think  the  7th  and  8th  chapters  never  should  have 
been  divided — the  7th  chapter  closes  up  in  this  way 
— he  had  been  lifting  the  standard  very  high  that 
day,  and  many  of  his  disciples  left  him.  "Every 
man  went  into  his  own  house,  and  Jesus  went  to 
the  Mount  of  Olives,"  the  opening  of  the  8th  chap- 
ter says.  I  can  imagine  that  night  was  one  of  those 
lonely  nights.  He  came  into  the  world  to  bless  the 
world,  and  the  world  didn't  want  to  be  blessed. 
He  came  to  do  men  good,  and  they  didn't  want  to 
receive  any  thing  from  Him.  "And  every  man 
went  into  his  own  house. ' '  Every  door  in  Jerusalem 
that  night  was  closed  against  Him.  At  one  time  he 
said,  "The  foxes  have  holes,  the  birds  of  the  air 


410  NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to 
lay  His  head."  Think  of  it — the  little  bird  you  see 
flitting  by  you  has  its  nest — its  home ;  the  fox  has 
its  hole,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay 
His  head.  I  used  to  think  I  would  like  to  have 
lived  in  that  day.  I  would  like  to  have  had  a 
home  in  Jerusalem  to  have  invited  Him  to  be  my 
guest,  and  to  sit  at  His  feet  as  Mary  did,  and  let 
Him  talk  to  me.  But  I  suppose  if  I  had  lived  at 
that  day  my  door  would  have  been  closed  against 
Him.  But  I  remember  thinking  over  it  some  time 
ago,  and  the  thought  came  stealing  over  me:  There 
is  one  place  I  can  give  the  Son  of  God  a  welcome — 
just  one  place,  and  that  is  my  heart.  It  is  the  only 
place  He  wants  to  dwell.  Now  if  we  make  room  in 
our  hearts  for  Him,  He  will  gladly  come  and  dwell 
with  us. 

There  was  a  woman  right  in  the  midst  of  this 
darkness,  when  many  disciples  left  Him,  who  came 
and  invited  Him  to  her  home — a  woman  by  the 
name  of  Martha.  I  can  imagine  Martha  coming 
from  Bethany  one  day,  and  going  to  Jerusalem  to 
the  temple  to  worship,  when  the  great  Galilean 
Prophet  came  in,  and  she  listened  to  His  words, 
who  spake  as  never  man  spake.  And  as  the  words 
fell  from  his  lips  they  fell  upon  Martha's  ear,  and 
she  says:  "Well,  I  will  invite  Him  to  my  house. " 
It  must  have  cost  her  something  to  do  that.  Christ 
was  unpopular.  There  was  a  hiss  going  up  in  Jeru- 
salem against  Him.  They  called  Him  an  impostor. 
The  leading  men  of  the  nation  were  opposed  to 
Him.  They  said  He  was  Beelzebub,  the  lord  of 
filth.  They  said  He  was  an  impostor,  and  a  de- 
ceiver.    And  vet  Martha  invites   Him  to  her  home. 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM.  411 

I  hope  there  will  be  some  Martha  here  to-night  who 
will  invite  Him  to  her  home,  to  be  her  guest.  He 
will  make  your  home  a  thousand  times  better  home 
than  it  has  ever  been  before. 

Martha  invited  Him  home  with  her.  We  read  of 
His  going  often  to  Bethany.  That  one  act  will  live 
forever.  The  noblest,  the  best,  the  grandest  thing 
Martha  ever  did  was  to  make  room  in  her  home  for 
Jesus  Christ.  Little  did  she  know  when  she  invited 
the  Son  of  God  to  become  her  guest  who  He  was; 
and  when  we  receive  Jesus  Christ  into  our  hearts, 
little  do  we  know  who  He  is.  He  is  growing  all  the 
while.  It  will  take  all  eternity  to  find  out  who  He 
is. 

There  was  a  dark  cloud  then  over  that  home  in 
Bethany.  Martha  didn't  know  it.  Mary  did  not 
see  that  cloud.  It  was  fast  settling  down  upon  that 
home.  It  was  soon  going  to  burst  upon  that  little 
family.  The  Savior  knew  all  about  it.  He  saw 
that  dark  cloud  coming  across  that  threshold.  We 
read  that  He  often  lodged  there.  But  a  few  months 
after  He  became  their  friend  and  guest,  Lazarus 
sickened.  The  fever  laid  hold  of  him.  It  might 
have  been  typhoid  fever.  You  can  see  those  two 
sisters  watching  over  that  brother.  The  family 
physician  is  sent  for  to  Jerusalem,  and  he  comes  out 
and  does  everything  he  can  to  restore  him  to  life 
and  health ;  but  he  sank  lower  and  lower.  Some  of 
us  know  what  it  is  when  the  doctor  comes  in  and 
feels  the  pulse,  begins  to  look  very  serious,  and  takes 
you  off  into  another  room,  away  from  the  patient, 
and  tells  you  it  is  a  critical  case.  Martha  and  Mary 
passed  through  that  experience.  There  was  no 
hope,  and  Lazarus  must  die.     They  thought  if  Jesus 


412  NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

were  only  there  he  would  rebuke  this  disease.  He 
might  keep  death  from  taking  away  their  only 
brother.  They  sent  a  messenger  a  good  ways  off  to 
tell  Jesus  his  friend  was  sick,  and  this  was  the  mes- 
sage: "He  whom  Thou  lovest  is  sick. "  They  do 
not  ask  Him  to  come.  They  knew  Jesus  loved 
him,  and  He  would  come  if  it  was  for  their  good. 
The  messenger  at  last  returned.  He  found  Christ 
and  delivered  his  message.  When  he  got  back,  he 
found  that  that  cloud  had  burst  upon  that  little 
home;  that  Lazarus  was  dead  and  buried.  I  see 
those  two  sisters  as  they  gather  around  the  messen- 
ger. They  said,  "Did  you  find  Him?"  "Yes,  I 
found  Him."  "What  did  He  say?"  "He  said  the 
sickness  was  not  unto  death,  and  He  would  come 
and  see  him;"  and  for  the  first  time  I  see  faith 
beginning  to  stagger.  Mary  says,  "Are  you  sure 
you  understood  Him?  Did  He  say  the  sickness  was 
not  unto  death?"  "Yes."  "Are  you  quite  sure?" 
"Yes."  "Well,"  says  Mary,  "that  is  strange.  If 
He  is  a  prophet,  He  should  have  known  that  he  was 
dead.  Elijah  would  have  known  it.  If  He  was  a 
prophet,  why  He  must  have  known  it.  You  hadn't 
been  away  from  the  house  an  hour  before  Lazarus 
died.  He  was  dead  when  you  met  Him."  "Well, 
that  is  what  He  told  me.  He  said  He  would  come 
here  and  see  him."  I  see  those  two  sisters  as  they 
kept  watching  for  that  friend  to  come  and  comfort 
them.  How  long  those  nights  must  have  been  as 
they  watched  and  waited.  I  can  imagine  they  did 
not  sleep  through  the  night.  They  listened  to  hear 
a  footfall.  The  next  day  they  watched  and  He  did 
not  come.  The  second  night  passed  and  He  did  not 
come.     The  third  day  came  and  He  did  not  come. 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM.  413 

The  fourth  day  came  and  a  messenger  came  run- 
ning in  and  says,  "Martha,  Jesus  and  His  Apostles 
are  just  outside  of  the  walls  of  the  city.  He  is  com- 
ing on  toward  Bethany."  Martha  runs  out  and 
says,  "If  Thou  hadst  been  here  my  brother  had  not 
died.  Thou  wouldst  have  kept  death  away  from 
our  dwelling. "  Jesus  answered,  "But  thy  brother 
shall  rise  again. '  * 

I  would  give  more  for  such  a  friend  than  all  the 
infidels  in  America.  I  would  rather  have  such  a 
friend  than  have  the  wealth  of  the  world.  When 
death  has  come  and  taken  my  wife  and  taken  my 
children,  to  have  a  voice  say  to  me,  "I  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life.  He  that  believeth  in  Me, 
though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live. "  Little  did 
Martha  know  whom  she  was  entertaining  when  she 
invited  Christ  into  her  home.  The  world  has  been 
sneering  at  Martha  ever  since,  but  it  was  the  grand- 
est, the  sublimest  and  noblest  act  of  her  life.  Oh, 
my  friends,  make  room  for  the  Son  of  God  in  your 
homes.  Let  the  world  go  on  mocking  and  scoffing. 
The  hour  will  come  when  the  cloud  will  burst  on 
your  homes,  when  death  will  come  down  in  your 
dwelling  and  take  away  a  loved  mother,  a  loved 
child,  a  loved  father.  Then  what  is  your  infidelity 
and  atheism?  But  the  words  of  the  Son  of  God, 
how  they  comfort  then:  "Thy  brother  shall  rise 
again."  "Yes,  I  know  that,"  says  Martha.  He 
had  probably  taught  them  of  the  resurrection.  "I 
know  he  will  rise  again,  for  he  was  such  a  good 
brother.  He  will  rise  at  the  resurrection  of  the 
just."  Says  the  Son  of  God,  "I  am  the  resurrection 
of  the  just.  I  carry  the  keys  with  Me.  I  have  the 
keys    to    death    and    the  grave."      And  He  says, 


414  NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

"Where  is  Mary?  Go  call  her."  I  hope  there  is 
some  Mary  here  that  will  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son 
of  God  call  to-night.  They  ran  and  told  Mary  Jesus 
was  there.  I  suppose  Mary  and  Martha  talked  it 
all  over,  for  Mary  came  out  and  said  the  same 
words:  "If  Thou  hadst  been  here  my  brother  had 
not  died."  "Thy  brother  shall  rise  again."  "Yes, 
I  know  he  will  rise  in  the  resurrection  of  the  just." 
"I  am  the  resurrection  of  the  just.  Where  have 
you  laid  him?"  Look  at  that  company  as  they 
went  along  towards  the  grave-yard.  These  two  sis- 
ters are  telling  about  the  last  words  and  last  acts  of 
Lazarus.  Perhaps  Lazarus  left  a  loving  message 
for  Jesus.  You  know  what  that  is.  When  you  go 
to  see  friends  who  are  mourning,  how  they  will 
dwell  upon  the  last  words  and  the  last  acts  of  the 
departed  one.  You  see  Martha  and  Mary  weeping 
as  they  went  along  toward  the  grave,  and  the  Son 
of  God  wept  with  them.  He  had  a  heart  to  weep 
with  those  who  wept,  and  to  mourn  with  those  who 
mourned.  He  is  touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  infir- 
mities.    He  can  comfort  us  in  a  time  of  sorrow. 

He  said,  "Where  have  you  laid  him?"  And  they 
said,  "Come  and  see."  And  they  led  the  way. 
He  said  to  his  disciples,  "Take  away  the  stone. " 
And  again  those  sisters'  faith  wavered,  and  they 
said:  "Lord,  by  this  time  he  stinketh,  for  he  has 
been  dead  four  days."  They  did  not  know  who 
their  friend  was,  and  when  they  rolled  away  that 
stone,  Christ  cried  with  a  loud  voice  to  his  old 
friend:  "Lazarus,  come  forth?"  and  Lazarus  then 
leaped  out  of  that  same  sepulcher  and  came  forth. 
Some  old  divine  said  it  was  a  good  thing  He  singled 
out  Lazarus,  for  there  is  such  power  in  the  voice  of 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM.  415 

the  Son  of  God  that  the  dead  shall  hear  his  voice 
and  if  He  had  not  called  Lazarus  by  name  all  the 
dead  in  that  grave-yard  would  have  come  forth.  O ! 
what  blindness  and  downright  folly  for  a  man  or 
woman  to  be  ashamed  of  Jesus  Christ !  O !  make  a 
friend  of  Him  who  has  the  keys  of  death ;  who  has 
the  power  to  raise  our  dead  friends !  Your  own  time 
is  coming.  The  hour  is  coming  when  the  dead 
shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  and  come 
forth.  It  seemed  to  just  pain  the  heart  of  the  Son 
of  God  when  he  was  down  here,  to  find  so  few  people 
that  wanted  Him.  We  read  of  his  looking  toward 
heaven,  sighing  as  he  looked  toward  that  world 
where  all  honored  and  loved  Him,  and  it  seemed  as 
if  He  just  sighed  for  home.  As  He  looked  around 
Him,  He  could  see  what  death  was  doing.  He 
could  see  what  sin  was  doing.  There  was  death 
behind  Him,  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left;  yet 
they  were  so  few  that  wanted  Him,  so  few  cared  for 
Him.  He  seemed  to  look  toward  that  world  and 
sigh — just  longed  for  the  time  that  God's  will  should 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  up  there  in  heaven. 

I  would  like  to  ask  this  congregation,  did  you  ever 
have  this  feeling  come  over  you  that  no  one  wanted 
you?  I  had  it  once.  I  remember,  when  I  left  my 
mother  and  went  off  to  Boston.  I  want  to  say,  if  a 
man  wants  to  feel  that  he  is  alone  in  the  world,  he 
don't  want  to  go  off  in  the  wilderness  where  he  can 
have  himself  for  company,  but  let  him  go  into  some 
of  these  metropolises  or  large  cities,  and  let  him  pass 
down  the  streets  where  he  can  meet  thousands  and 
have  no  one  know  him  or  recognize  him. 

I  remember  when  I  went  off  in  that  city  and  tried 
to  get  work  and  failed.  It  seemed  as  if  there  was 
24 


416  I^O  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

room  for  every  one  else  in  the  world,  but  there  was 
none  for  me.  For  about  two  days  I  had  that  awful 
feeling  that  no  one  wanted  me.  I  never  have  had 
it  since,  and  I  never  want  it  again.  It  is  an  awful 
feeling.  It  seems  to  me  that  must  have  been  the 
feeling  of  the  Son  of  God  when  He  was  down  here. 
They  did  not  want  Him.  He  had  come  down  to 
save  men  and  they  did  not  want  to  be  saved.  He 
had  come  to  lift  men  up,  and  they  did  not  want  to 
be  lifted  up.  There  was  not  room  for  Him  in  this 
world,  and  there  is  not  room  for  Him  yet. 

Oh !  my  friend,  is  there  room  for  Him  in  your 
heart?  That  is  the  question.  There  is  room  for 
pleasure.  There  is  room  for  lust.  There  is  room 
for  passion.  There  is  room  for  jealousy.  There  is 
room  for  the  world.  There  is  room  for  everything  but 
the'  Son  of  God — no  room  for  Him.  When  he  made 
these  hearts  of  yours  and  mine.  He  made  room  enough 
for  Himself,  but  a  usurper  has  come  in  and  taken 
possession  of  His  place.  When  He  made  this  world 
He  made  room  enough  for  you  and  me  and  for 
Him,  but  when  He  came  there  was  not  any  room 
for  Him.  The  only  place  they  could  make  room  for 
Him  was  on  the  cross,  and  put  Him  there.  The 
world  to-day  is  a  no  greater  friend  of  Jesus  Christ 
than  it  was  when  He  was  down  here,  but  if  His 
disciples  will  only  make  room  for  Him,  how  He  will 
come  and  dwell  with  us,  and  bless  us,  and  lift  us 
up;  and  He  says  to  us,  "If  you  will  make  room  for 
me  down  here,  I  will  make  room  for  you  up  there. 
If  you  will  honor  and  confess  me  down  here,  I  will 
honor  you  in  the  courts  of  heaven,  and  confess  you 
up  there  in  the  presence  of  the  Father  and  the 
angels." 


NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM,  417 

O!  my  friends,  make  room  for  Him  to-night! 
Do  not  go  out  of  this  house  until  you  have  made 
room  for  the  Son  of  God. 

I  saw  some  time  ago  an  account  of  a  lady  that 
went  in  to  see  her  neighbor  whom  she  found  weep- 
ing as  if  her  heart  would  break.  She  said  to  her, 
"What  is  the  trouble?"  "Well,"  she  said,  "there 
is  my  child.  It  is  fourteen  years  old  to-day.  For 
fourteen  years  I  have  watched  over  and  provided 
for  that  child.  I  have  not  allowed  my  servants  to 
take  care  of  it.  During  the  past  fourteen  years 
there  has  not  been  a  night  but  that  I  have  been  up 
some  part  of  the  night  with  that  child.  I  have  left 
society  and  spent  my  time  at  home  with  that  child. " 
The  child  had  not  a  mind.  "But,"  she  says,  "if 
that  child  would  just  recognize  me  once  it  would  pay 
me  for  all  I  have  done;  but  that  child  don't  know 
me  from  a  stranger. ' '  Her  heart  was  just  breaking, 
and  as  I  read  I  thought :  How  many  of  us  treat  God 
in  the  same  way? 

My  friends,  God  has  blessed  you  with  health,  and 
a  home  in  a  Christian  land.  He  has  blessed  yoii 
with  a  good  wife;  He  has  blessed  you  with  chil- 
dren ;  He  has  blessed  some  of  you  with  property, 
and  you  never  have  looked  up  once  and  recognized 
His  loving  hand,  and  said,  "Thank  you.  Lord 
Jesus. ' ' 

O!  this  base  ingratitude!  May  God  forgive  us, 
and  may  we  to-night  make  room  in  our  hearts  for 
the  Son  of  God !  Just  now  when  He  is  knocking  at 
the  door  of  your  heart,  just  pull  back  the  bolt  and 
say  "Welcome!  Thrice  welcome!"  and  see  how 
quick  he  will  come  in.  What  is  he  saying?  Listen  ! 
Hark!      Does   the  heart    throb?      That   is  Christ 


418  NO  ROOM  FOR  HIM. 

knocking!  "Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door,  I  will 
come  in  to  him  and  sup  with  him,  and  He  with  me." 
O!  sinner,  just  unlock  the  door  of  your  heart 
to-night.  Just  throw  that  door  wide  open  and  say 
"Welcome!  thrice  welcome.  Son  of  God,  into  this 
heart  of  mine ! ' '  and  see  how  quick  he  will  come  and 
dwell  with  you.  He  will  never  leave  you;  He  will 
never  forsake  you.  In  the  time  of  trouble  He  will 
be  your  counselor.  In  the  time  of  sorrow  He  will 
be  your  deliverer.  If  you  want  "a  friend  that  stick- 
eth  closer  than  a  brother"  make  room  in  your  heart 
for  the  Son  of  God.  If  you  want  a  friend  that  will 
help  you  in  the  time  of  temptation  and  trial,  make 
room  in  your  heart  for  the  Son  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


THEIR  ROCK    IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK. 

For  their  rock  is  not  as  our  rock,  even  our  enemies  them- 
selves being  judges.     Deut.  xxxii.  31. 

This  was  Moses'  farewell  address.  He  was  about 
to  leave  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness. 
He  had  led  them  up  to  the  borders  of  the  Promised 
Land.  For  forty  long  years  he  had  been  leading 
them  in  that  wilderness,  and  now,  as  they  were  about 
to  go  over,  Moses  takes  his  farewell;  and  among 
the  good  things  he  said,  for  he  said  a  great  many 
very  wise  and  very  good  things  on  that  memorable 
occasion,  this  is  one:  "For  their  rock  is  not  as  our 
rock,  even  our  enemies  themselves  being  judges. ' ' 
There  was  not  a  man  on  the  face  of  the  earth  at 
that  time  that  knew  as  much  about  the  world,  and 
as  much  about  God,  as  Moses.  Therefore  he  was  a 
good  judge.  He  had  tasted  of  the  pleasures  of  the 
world.  In  the  forty  years  that  he  was  in  Egypt  he 
probably  sampled  everything  of  that  day.  He 
tasted  of  the  world,  of  its  pleasures.  He  knew  all 
about  it.  He  was  brought  up  in  the  palace  of  a 
king,  a  prince.  Egypt  then  ruled  the  world,  as  it 
were.  He  had  been  forty  years  in  Horeb,  where 
he  had  heard  the  voice  of  God ;  where  he  had  been 
taught  by  God;  and  for  forty  years  he  had  been 
serving   God.       You  might  say  he  was  God's  right 

419 


420  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK. 

hand  man,  leading  those  bondmen  up  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  and  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  into 
the  land  of  liberty ;  and  this  is  his  dying  address — • 
you  might  say,  his  farewell  address.  This  is  the 
dying  testimony  of  one  that  could  speak  with 
authority,  and  one  that  could  speak  intelligently. 
He  knew  what  he  was  saying,  "Their  rock  is  not 
as  our  rock,  even  our  enemies  themselves  being 
judges." 

Now,  to-night  I  want  to  take  up  the  atheist,  the 
deist,  the  pantheist,  and  the  infidel ;  and  I  want  to 
show,  if  I  can,  and  I  think  it  is  not  a  very  difficult 
thing  to  show,  that  their  way  is  not  as  our  way. 

I  know  there  is  a  good  deal  of  dispute  now  about 
the  definition  of  these  words.  So,  to  avoid  any 
trouble,  instead  of  going  to  the  Bible  I  went  to  Web- 
ster's dictionary,  and  I  have  got  the  meaning.  I 
suppose  you  will  give  in,  most  of  you,  that  Webster 
is  wiser  than  yourselves.  There  are  a  few  men  that 
are  a  little  wiser  than  Webster,  for  infidelity  is  gen- 
erally very  conceited.  One  of  the  worst  things 
about  infidelity  is  the  conceit.  You  seldom  meet 
an  infidel  that  is  not  wiser  in  his  own  estimation 
than  the  God  who  created  him,  and  he  wants  to  teach 
God  instead  of  letting  God  teach  him.  But  to  those 
that  are  willing  to  bow  to  Webster  we  will  refer 
these  definitions  of  these  words. 

An  atheist  is  "one  who  disbelieves  or  denies  the 
existence  of  God."  I  am  thankful  to  say  that  they 
are  very  scarce.  You  meet  them  now  and  then. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  you  will  occasionally  meet  a 
young  man  that  will  tell  you  that  he  is  an  atheist. 
He  believes  there  is  no  God;  he  believes  that  there 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK.  421 

is  no  hereafter ;  that  when  he  dies,  that  is  the  end 
— that  ends  all. 

I  don't  know  of  anything  that  is  darker;  I  don't 
know  of  anything  that  is  colder,  bleaker,  than 
that  doctrine ;  for,  of  course,  an  atheist  has  feelings 
like  the  rest  of  us.  If  he  is  a  father,  he  has  love  for 
his  children.  Here  is  a  boy  that  has  gone  astray ;  he 
has  been  taken  captive  by  Satan ;  he  has  become  a 
victim  to  strong  drink,  we  will  say,  and  strong 
drink  has  got  the  mastery ;  and  you  can  see  that  boy 
as  he  is  going  down  to  a  drunkard's  grave.  He  says 
to  that  father  that  believes  there  is  no  God,  and  no 
hereafter,  "Father,  is  there  no  deliverance  for  me? 
Is  there  no  way  that  I  can  become  a  free  man?" 
"Yes,"  says  the  atheist,  "assert  your  manhood. 
Resolve  that  you  will  never  drink  anymore.  "  "Ah, 
but,  father,  I  have  done  that  a  thousand  times,  and 
I  can't  keep  those  resolutions.  The  tempter  is  too 
strong  for  me.  My  appetite  is  stronger  than  my  will 
power,  father?  Is  there  no  God  that  created  me 
that  can  help  me?"  "No,  my  son,  no;  nothing 
outside  yourself."  "And  if  I  die  in  this  condition, 
what  is  going  to  become  of  me?"  "Oh,  that  will  be 
the  last  of  you. "  "And  shall  we  never  meet  again 
in  the  universe  of  God?"  "No,  never."  Pretty 
dark,  isn't  it?  And  the  atheist  sees  that  boy  go 
down  to  a  drunkard's  grave.  There  is  no  arm  to 
deliver,  no  eye  to  pity.     There  is  no  help. 

Look  again.  He  has  got  a  beautiful  little  child. 
It  has  lived  long  enough  to  twine  itself  around  that 
father's  heart,  and  the  cold,  icy  hand  of  death  is 
feeling  for  the  chords  of  life,  and  that  little  flower 
is  going  to  be  plucked.  You  can  see  that  little  child 
wasting  away  upon  a  bed  of  pain  and  sickness.     The 


422  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK. 

child  calls  the  father  to  its  bedside  and  says, 
"Father,  is  there  no  hereafter?"  "No,  my  child." 
"Shall  we  never  meet  again?"  "No,  my  child." 
"When  I  die,  is  that  the  last  of  me?"  "Yes,  my 
child."  Pretty  dark,  isn't  it?  That  atheist  goes 
and  lays  away  that  child  without  one  ray  of  hope — 
without  one  star  to  relieve  the  midnight  darkness 
and  gloom. 

A  prominent  infidel  of  this  country  stood  at  the 
grave  of  a  member  of  his  family.  He  is  an  orator 
— an  eloquent  man ;  and  he  said  he  committed  him 
back  to  the  winds  and  the  waves  and  the  elements; 
it  was  the  last  they  would  ever  see  of  him.  Pretty 
dark,  isn't  it? 

And  yet  there  are  some  men  that  want  to  go  over 
to  atheism.  They  want  to  believe  that  there  is  no 
God.  I  can  not  for  the  life  of  me  see  where  you 
get  any  comfort  in  it.  I  turn  away  from  it,  and  I 
say  from  the  very  depths  of  my  heart,  "Their  rock 
is  not  as  our  rock. "  I  thank  God  I  have  got  a  bet- 
ter foundation  than  that ;  I  thank  God  I  have  got  a 
better  hope  than  that.  If  my  boy  is  led  astray,  I 
can  preach  to  him  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  can  tell  him 
that  God  Almighty  has  got  power  to  deliver  him 
from  sin,  and  from  its  mighty  power;  and  if  God 
should  take  my  child  from  me,  I  can  say  to  that  dear 
child,  ' '  I  will  meet  you  on  the  glorious  morning  of 
the  resurrection.  It  won't  be  long.  We  may  be 
separated  for  a  little  while,  but  the  night  will  soon 
pass,  and  the  great  morning  of  the  world  will  dawn 
upon  us. "  Yes,  "their  rock  is  not  as  our  rock,  even 
our  enemies  themselves  being  judges." 

But  I  must  pass  on.  That  is  the  definition  of  an 
atheist — one  that  believes  there  is  no  God.     I  want 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK.  425 

to  say  if  there  were  many  atheists  in  this  country 
we  would  have  a  great  many  more  suicides  than  we 
have.  These  men  that  have  got  tired  of  life,  if  they 
thought  that  death  ended  all,  they  would  quickly 
put  themselves  out  of  the  way,  and  you  could  not 
blame  them  for  it.  But  I  think  there  is  something 
down  in  man's  heart  that  tells  him  there  is  a  here- 
after; that  there  is  not  only  a  God,  but  there  is  a 
judgment  to  come. 

Now  a  deist.  A  deist  is  one  that  believes  in  one 
God  only.  He  denies  Christ  and  revelation.  Deism 
is  not  much  better,  I  think,  than  atheism,  for  I 
never  yet  knew  a  deist  that  knew  anything  about 
his  God.  He  believes  there  is  a  God,  and  that  is  all 
you  can  get  out  of  him. 

Deists  live  on  their  doubts.  They  live  on  what 
they  do  not  believe — on  negatives.  You  meet  a 
deist  and  he  would  tell  you,  "I  don't  believe  this, 
and  I  don't  believe  that,  and  that,"  and  he  is  all  the 
time  telling  you  what  he  don't  believe.  You  sel- 
dom, if  ever,  find  a  deist  who  will  tell  you  what  he 
does  believe,  because  he  knows  nothing  about  his 
God.  If  a  man  denies  revelation,  how  is  he  to  know 
anything  about  God?  How  are  we  to  know  our  God 
if  we  are  only  deists,  and  just  close  that  book,  and 
not  believe  in  the  book?  Is  he  a  God  of  mercy? 
We  know  nothing  about  it.  Is  he  a  God  of  truth, 
and  equity,  and  justice?  We  know  nothing  about  it. 
How  are  we  to  know  anything  about  God,  if  we  cast 
away  the  Bible,  and  say  we  don't  believe  in  revela- 
tion; that  we  don't  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  came 
down  here  to  declare  His  Father,  and  believe  that 
that  book  is  not  written  by  inspiration,  and  doubt 
that  blessed  word  of  God?     I  would  like  to  have  a. 


426  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK.    „ 

deist  come  forward  and  declare  to  us  his  God — and 
tell  us  who  and  what  he  is. 

The  Pantheist.  Let  us  see  what  Webster's  defi- 
nition of  a  pantheist  is.  He  believes  that  the  uni- 
verse is  God.  He  believes  that  God  is  in  the  wind, 
God  is  in  the  water,  God  is  in  the  trees,  and  all  the 
God  we  know  anything  about  is  the  god  we  see 
about  us.  A  pantheist  will  say,  "Why,  yes,  I  be- 
lieve in  God.  You  are  God  and  I  am  God.  We  are 
all  Gods. ' '  That  is  their  idea — that  God  is  in  every- 
thing. I  strike  that  board  and  strike  the  pantheist's 
god,  because  that  is  as  much  a  god  as  the  god  he 
knows.  I  stamp  upon  the  floor,  and  I  stamp  the 
pantheist's  god.  That  is  all  he  knows.  God  is  in 
everything ;  God  is  everywhere ;  God  is  nowhere : 
that  is  the  summing  up  of  pantheism.  Now,  you 
will  find  a  great  many  of  these  pantheists  that  will 
tell  you  they  believe  more  in  God  than  we  do*  be- 
cause they  believe  God  is  in  everything  all  around. 

But  when  you  ask  a  deist  or  a  pantheist  if  his  God 
answers  prayer,  he  will  tell  you  no.  "Does  he  hear 
the  cry  of  distress?"  "No."  "Does  he  hear  the 
cry  of  the  humble?"  He  will  tell  you  that  the  Lord 
of  the  universe  and  the  God  of  the  universe  has  just 
made  this  world,  and  has  wound  it  up  as  a  clock, 
and  it  is  going  to  run ;  that  His  laws  are  fixed ;  that 
you  need  not  pray;  you  can't  change  God's  mind; 
that  he  never  answers  prayer.  If  your  child  has 
gone  astray,  you  can't  pray  to  Him,  because  He  has 
no  mercy.  There  is  no  mercy  but  in  the  wind,  and 
you  may  as  well  go  out  and  pray  to  the  thunder,  to 
a  storm,  or  a  shower,  to  the  moon,  the  sun,  the  stars, 
because  God  is  everything  and  everywhere,  and 
yet  is  nowhere,     They  don't  believe  in  the  person- 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK.  427 

ality  of  God.  You  may  just  take  pantheism,  deism 
and  atheism,  put  them  all  together,  and  there  is  not 
much  difference.  I  would  as  soon  be  the  one  as  the 
other,  because  they  are  in  midnight  darkness  and 
gloom.  They  know  nothing  about  the  God  of  love 
and  the  God  of  the  Bible. 

But  now  we  come,  perhaps,  to  the  most  difficult 
class,  because  I  think  that  there  are  a  great  many 
infidels,  and  don't  like  that  name.  I  suppose  that 
saying  they  were  infidels  has  offended  quite  a  num- 
ber of  Cleveland  people.  They  stand  up  and  deny 
it.  But  when  you  come  to  put  the  question  right  to 
them  according  to  Webster's  definition  of  infidelity, 
they  are  nothing  but  infidels.  Now,  an  infidel  is 
one  that  does  not  believe  in  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  we  have  got  to-day  a  good 
many  infidels.  The  first  step  towards  atheism  is 
infidelity.  The  first  step  towards  pantheism  is  infi- 
delity.    The  first  step  towards  deism  is  infidelity. 

The  moment  you  can  break  down  that  word  in 
one  place  and  make  out  that  it  is  not  true,  then,  of 
course,  the  whole  word  goes.  Now,  you  ask  an  in- 
fidel if  he  really  believes  in  the  Bible,  and  he  says, 
"Well,  I  believe  part  of  it.  I  believe  all  that  cor- 
responds with  my  reason,  but  I  don't  believe  any- 
thing supernatural.  I  don't  believe  anything  I 
can't  reason  out." 

Now,  if  a  man  takes  that  ground  he  might  as 
well  throw  away  the  whole  Bible  and  go  over  to 
atheism  at  one  leap.  He  need  not  be  weeks  and 
months  going,  because  that  is  where  it  is  going  to 
bring  him.  If  you  take  out  of  that  book  all  that  is 
supernatural,  you  might  as  well  take  out  the  whole 


428  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK. 

of  it.  From  beginning  to  end  it  is  a  supernatural 
book.  Look  into  Genesis.  You  ask  an  infidel  if  he 
believes  in  the  flood.  No,  sir;  not  he.  Then  throw 
out  Genesis ;  because,  if  the  man  who  wrote  Gene- 
sis put  in  one  lie,  why  is  not  the  whole  of  it  a  lie? 
If  he  did  he  must  have  known  it  was  a  fraud  when 
he  wrote  it,  so  that  condemns  Genesis.  You  ask  a 
man  if  he  believes  the  story  of  the  Red  Sea — about 
bringing  the  children  of  Israel  throiigh  the  Red  Sea. 
Not  he.  That  is  contrary  to  reason,  contrary  to 
man's  intellect.  Out  goes  Exodus.  That  throws 
out  the  decalogue — throws  out  the  commandments. 
It  all  goes  together.  If  the  man  who  wrote  Exodus 
told  a  lie  in  the  beginning  of  Exodus  and  that  the 
children  never  went  through  the  Red  Sea,  then  away 
goes  the  whole  book. 

Then  take  up  Leviticus.  It  is  said  in  Leviticus 
if  we  will  do  so  and  so  He  will  come  down  and  walk 
with  us,  would  be  among  his  people,  and  the  shout 
of  the  king  is  heard  in  the  camp.  "Do  you  believe 
that?"  "No,  sir,"  the  infidel  says,  "I  don't  believe 
anything  of  that  kind."  Out  goes  Leviticus. 
Throw  it  all  out. 

Do  you  believe  God  told  Moses  to  make  a  brazen 
serpent,  and  that  all  the  bitten  Israelites  that 
looked  upon  it  shall  live?  The  skeptic  turns  up  his 
nose  and  says  with  a  good  deal  of  contempt,  "No, 
you  don't  think  I  am  fool  enough  to  believe  that?" 
Out  goes  the  whole  book  of  Numbers;  throw  it  out 
because  if  the  man  that  wrote  that  book,  put  that 
lie  in,  the  whole  of  it  is  a  lie.  You  just  prove  that 
I  tell  a  wilful  lie  here  to-night  and  my  whole  ser- 
mon is  gone.  You  go  into  court  and  testify  to  a  lie 
and  let  it  be  proven  that  you  have  told  a  wilful  lie, 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK.  429 

(and  untrue  in  one  thing  untrue  in  all), out  goes  your 
testimony.  The  jury  won't  take  it.  Now,  if  the 
man  that  wrote  the  book  of  Numbers  put  down  that 
lie — if  he  never  did  make  a  brazen  serpent  for  the 
children  of  Israel,  then  the  whole  book  of  Numbers 
is  gone.  Throw  it  out.  Then  we  come  to  Deutero- 
nomy, Do  you  believe  Moses  went  up  into  the 
mountain  and  his  natural  force  was  not  abated,  his 
eye  had  not  grown  dim,  and  he  died  there  and  God 
buried  him ;  God  kissed  away  his  soul,  as  some  one 
has  said?  The  infidel  says,  "I  don't  believe  one  word 
of  it ;  that  is  supernatural ;  that  is  against  reason. 
Then  throw  out  the  whole  book  of  Deuteronomy. 
There  goes  the  first  five  books  of  Moses. 

Then  go  into  Joshua.  "Do  you  believe  Joshua 
took  Jericho  by  going  around  Jericho  blowing  ranis' 
horns?"  "Don't  believe  a  word  of  it. "  Tear  it  to 
pieces.  Throw  it  away.  Out  it  goes.  If  the  writer 
of  that  book  would  tell  a  lie  like  that  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  book  he  lied  all  through  it — why  not? 
That  is  what  an  infidel  is — one  who  does  not  believe 
in  supernatural  things. 

'*Do  you  believe  that  Samson  took  the  jaw-bone 
of  an  ass  and  slew  a  thousand  men?"  "No,  I  don't 
believe  it."  Out  goes  the  book.  Because  from  the 
beginning  of  Judges  to  the  end  it  is  all  supernatu- 
ral. 

"Do  you  believe  God  called  Samuel  when  he  was 
a  little  boy— that  God  called  him?"  "Why,  no," 
says  the  infidel, '"I  don't  believe  any  thing  that  is 
contrary  to  my  reason.  I  don't  believe  any  thing 
supernatural. ' '  Out  goes  the  two  books  of  Sam- 
uel. 

"Do  you  believe  that  David  went  out  and  met 


430  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK. 

Goliath  and  slew  him?"  "No,  I  don't  believe  it." 
Out  goes  the  two  books  of  Kings.  And  so  I  can  go 
on  through  the  whole  Bible.  Take  out  the  super- 
natural in  it  and  you  have  to  throw  away  the  whole 
Bible.  You  can't  touch  Jesus  Christ  from  His  birth 
until  He  went  up  into  glory,  but  what  He  was 
supernatural.  The  work  that  is  going  on  now  is 
supernatural.  Things  are  happening  every  day  that 
are  supernatural.  Every  man  that  is  born  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  born  of  God — it  is  supernatural.  Yet 
an  infidel  will  stand  right  up  and  tell  you  to-day 
that  he  will  not  believe  a  thing  in  that  book  that 
don't  correspond  to  his  reason;  therefore  the  infidels 
are  just  tearing  the  Bible  all  to  pieces.  That  is 
where  we  are  drifting  to.  "Their  rock  is  not  as  our 
rock,  even  our  enemies  themselves  being  judges." 

Now,  I  would  like  to  ask  the  infidels  what  earthly 
motive  could  the  early  Christians  have  had  in  writ- 
ing that  book?  What  motive  could  Jesus  Christ 
have  had  in  coming  down  here  and  living  such  a 
life  as  he  led?  Some  of  you  accuse  us  of  working 
for  gain.  You  say  that  we  are  after  your  money 
and  that  we  don't  care  anything  about  your  soul. 
You  cannot  accuse  our  Master  of  that,  can  you?  He 
didn't  carry  off  much  money,  did  He?  His  cradle 
was  a  borrowed  one.  The  only  time  that  He  rode 
into  Jerusalem,  that  we  have  recorded.  He  rode  in  on 
a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass.  It  would  be  a  strange  sight 
to  see  him  coming  into  Cleveland  in  that  way.  You 
would  not  own  Him.  And  He  did  not  own  this 
beast.  It  was  a  borrowed  beast.  It  w^as  a  borrowed 
guest  chamber  in  which  he  instituted  his  supper. 
It  was  a  borrowed  grave  in  which  they  laid  Him. 
He  that  was  rich  became  poor  for  our  sakes.     What 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK.  431 

motive  could  He  have  had  in  coming  down  here  if 
He  had  not  been  true  and  real — if  he  had  been  an 
imposter,  a  hypocrite,  coming  down  here  and  teach- 
ing us  a  falsehood?  If  Jesus  Christ  was  not  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  he  was  the  greatest  imposter 
that  ever  came  into  this  world,  and  every  Christian 
throughout  Christendom  to-day,  is  guilty  of  idolatry, 
of  breaking  the  first  commandment,  "Thou  shalt 
have  no  other  god  before  Me. "  He  comes  and  says 
unto  the  world,  "Come  unto  Me  and  I  will  give  you 
rest."  Elijah  never  said  that;  Moses  never  said 
that ;  no  man  that  ever  trod  this  earth  dared  to  have 
said  it ;  and  if  Jesus  Christ  had  not  been  divine  as  well 
as  human,  it  would  have  been  blasphemy,  and  the 
Jews  ought  to  have  put  him  to  death.  They  had  a 
right  by  the  Jewish  law  to  put  Him  to  death.  He 
an  impostor!  He  a  deceiver!  He  a  fraud!  Away 
with  such  doctrine !  And  yet  people  will  stand  right 
up  here  in  this  community  and  tell  you  it  is  all  a 
fiction  about  his  conception  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
at  the  same  time  they  will  stand  right  up  and  say 
they  are  Christians.  They  don't  like  that  word 
infidel.  They  say  that  they  are  no  infidels.  But, 
ah,  my  friends,  if  we  break  down  the  testimony  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  make  him  out  a  fraud  and  deceiver, 
it  all  goes. 

Now,  when  people  tell  me  that  that  book  is  not  to 
be  relied  upon,  I  tell  them  that  I  will  throw  it  away 
when  they  will  bring  me  a  better  one.  I  am  ready  to 
throw  it  away  to-night  if  you  will  bring  me  a  better 
one.  But  where  is  there  any  book  to  be  compared 
with  it?  Bring  it  on  will  you?  When  you  bring  on  a 
better  man  than  Jesus  Christ  I  will  follow  him. 
But  don't   ask  me  to  follow  these  skeptics  and  infi- 


432  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK. 

tJels  down  here  who  are  trying  to  tear  down  the 
works  of  Jesus  Christ  when  they  have  no  better  to 
leave  in  their  place. 

Now  Jesus  Christ  was  without  spot  or  blemish. 
You  can  find  no  fault  with  Him  or  in  Him.  We 
don't  want  to  follow  any  one  else  until  we  can  find 
a  better  man.  If  these  men  that  are  scoffing  and 
sneering  at  Christ  will  bring  on  a  better  man  we 
will  follow  him.  If  they  will  bring  on  a  better  book 
we  will  take  it.  But  until  they  do,  let  us  cling  to 
the  Bible,  and  defend  it  and  stand  by  it,  and  let  us 
stand  by  Jesus  Christ  and  let  us  defend  Him. 

Infidelity  takes  everything  away  from  us  and  gives 
us  nothing  in  return.  When  Lord  Chesterfield  went 
to  Paris  he  was  invited  out  to  dine  with  Voltaire, 
the  leading  infidel  of  that  day.  Lord  Chesterfield 
was  a  Christian  man.  A  lady  at  the  table,  when  they 
were  at  dinner,  said:  "Lord  Chesterfield,  I  am  told 
that  you  have  in  your  English  Parliament  five  or  six 
hundred  of  the  leading  men  of  thought  in  the 
nation."  Well,  he  said  he  believed  that  was  so. 
She  said,  "then  why  is  it  that  those  wise  men  toler- 
ate Christianity?"  Well,  he  said  he  supposed 
because  they  could  not  get  anything  better  to  take 
its  place. 

Do  you  ever  stop  to  think  what  you  would  put  in 
the  place  of  Christianity?  It  is  easy  enough  to  tear 
down,  or  at  least  try  to  tear  down.  There  are  some 
people  that  spend  all  their  lives  in  trying  to  tear 
down  things  that  are  good,  but  they  give  us  nothing 
in  the  place  of  them.  Now  the  trouble  with  infidelity 
is  it  gives  us  nothing  in  the  place  of  what  we  have 
got.  The  Bible  holds  out  a  hope  to  man.  It  holds 
out  something  that  is  beyond  this  life,  and  gives  him 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK.  433 

hope.  Infidelity  gives  him  no  hope.  It  tears  down 
all  the  hope  he  has  got.  He  has  got  nothing  to 
build  on.  If  this  book  fails,  what  have  we  got? 
Now,  just  think  a  moment.  Take  the  Bible  away 
from  us,  and  what  have  got?  I  would  like  to  say  to 
the  people  here  to-night,  if  you  step  into  a  church 
— for  I  am  sorry  to  say  some  of  these  infidels  have 
got  into  the  pulpit — if  you  step  into  a  church  and 
hear  a  man  talking  about  Jesus  Christ  not  being 
divine,  if  you  take  my  advice,  you  will  get  out  of 
that  church  as  quick  as  you  can  get  out.  But  you 
say,  "My  father  and  mother  belong  to  that  church. " 
Suppose  they  do.  You  get  out,  as  Lot  got  out  of 
Sodom.  Make  haste.  You  think  a  man  who  would 
sell  you  poison  and  kill  your  children  is  a  horrid 
man;  but  I  tell  you  a  man  who  would  plant  infidelity 
in  the  mind  of  my  child  is  worse  than  a  man  who  gives 
it  poison — to  have  their  young  minds  poisoned  and 
infidelity  taught  them  under  the  garb  of  Christ  and 
Christianity;  and  yet  there  are  some  men  who  pro- 
fess to  be  friends  of  that  book  who  are  all  the  time 
trying  to  tear  it  to  pieces,  and  make  out  that  it  is 
not  written  by  inspiration — that  it  is  not  from  God, 
and  that  it  cannot  speak  with  authority. 

Now,  to  show  that  their  rock  is  not  as  our  rock, 
our  enemies  themselves  being  judges,  I  want  to  tell 
you  a  thing  that  happened  some  time  ago.  I  was 
in  the  room  with  a  man,  and  he  said  he  wanted  to 
have  a  talk  with  me,  "but,"  he  says,  "I  wish  you 
would  let  that  man  go  out."  "O!"  I  said,  "he  is 
here  to  take  care  of  the  things."  We  had  some  of 
our  things  in  the  cloak-room  back  of  the  platform, 
and  he  was  there  so  that  no  thief  should  come  in 
and  steal  what  we  had.       And  this  man   said,    "I 


434  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR  ROCK, 

would  like  to  have  him  go  out."  "Well,"  I  said, 
"he  belongs  here.  I  will  ask  him  to  go  out  if  you 
insist  upon  it,  but,"  says  I,  "I  will  talk  at  this  end 
of  the  room."  "Well,"  he  said,  "I  would  like  to 
have  him  go  out."  I  spoke  to  the  man  and  asked 
him  to  leave  the  room,  and  he  hadn't  more  than 
got  out  before  he  opened  his  lips,  and  such  a  tirade 
against  Christianity!  I  said  to  him,  "My  friend, 
why  did  you  want  that  man  to  go  out?"  "Well,*' 
he  said,  "I  thought  it  might  hurt  him."  I  said,  "If 
it  is  good  for  you  why  is  it  not  good  for  him?"  Well, 
he  said  he  did  not  like  to  have  his  children  know  his 
views.  He  said  his  wife  was  a  Christian  and  he 
wanted  his  children  brought  up  differently.  "Their 
rock  is  not  as  our  rock,  our  enemies  themselves  being 
judges. ' '  I  want  my  children  to  believe  as  I  believe. 
I  want  them  to  be  taught  to  live  and  fear  and  honor 
God.  If  these  infidels  think  infidelity  is  good  for 
them,  why  is  it  they  don't  want  it  taught  to  their 
children,  why  is  it,  that  so  many  infidels  want  their 
children  to  be  taught  the  Lord's  prayer? 

Very  often  when  I  have  been  in  an  infidel's  house 
he  Jias  wanted  his  wife  and  children  to  leave  the 
room,  and  then  he  has  gone  on  and  talked  his  infi- 
delity. "Their  rock  is  not  as  our  rock,  our  enemies 
themselves  being  judges."     That  proves  it. 

A  man  ordered  his  servant  out  of  his  dining  room, 
and  after  his  servant  went  out  he  began  to  talk  his 
atheism  to  a  Christian  man  that  was  there.  The 
Christian  man  said  to  him.  "Why  did  you  order  out 
your  servant?"  "Well,"  said  he,  "I'm  afraid  if  he 
held  my  views  he  might  cut  my  throat  some  time, 
for  my  money  " 

You  laugh  at  it,  but  if  there  is  no  God,  why  not? 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT   OUR   ROCK.  435 

If  there  is  no  hereafter,  why  not?  If  this  country 
is  as  bad  as  it  is  with  all  the  religion  we  have,  what 
would  it  be  without  it?  Let  this  country  go  over 
to  infidelity,  what  would  become  of  the  nation?  It 
was  not  a  great  many  years  ago  that,  in  a  conven- 
tion at  Lyons,  France,  they  voted  that  the  Bible 
was  a  fiction,  that  it  was  not  true,  and  that  there 
was  no  God;  that  there  was  no  hereafter;  that  death 
was  an  eteral  sleep ;  and  it  was  not  very  long  before 
blood  flowed  very  freely  in  France.  And  you  let 
atheism,  and  pantheism,  and  deism,  and  infidelity  go 
stalking  through  this  land,  and  life  and  property 
won't  be  safe.     You  know  it  very  well. 

Lord  Lyttleton  and  Gilbert  West  were  going  to 
expose  the  fraud  of  Christianity.  One  was  going  to 
take  up  the  resurrection  and  expose  that.  The 
other  was  going  to  take  up  Saul's  conversion  and 
expose  that.  And  they  went  about  it — went  to 
studying  up  those  two  facts.  The  result  was  they 
were  both  converted.  The  testimony  was  perfectly 
overwhelming.  If  a  man  will  look  at  the  testimony, 
I  can't  see  for  the  life  of  me  how  he  can  doubt  these 
are  facts.  What  did  Paul  have  to  gain  by  his  con- 
version? Would  you  call  such  a  man  as  Paul  a  fraud? 
What  did  he  give  up  for  the  gospel's  sake?  Repu- 
tation,   position,    standing — every    thing    he    had. 

What  did  he  get  in  return?  Hunger,  persecution, 
prison,  stocks,  stripes,  and  death.  He  died  the 
death  of  a  common  criminal.  He  died  at  Rome  as 
a  poor  and  miserable  outcast  in  the  sight  of  the 
world.  What  earthly  motive  could  he  have  had,  if 
these  things  are  not  true?  Why,  we  have  all  the 
proof  that  any  man  could  ask  for,  that  Jesus  Christ 
rose  from  the  dead.      He  was  seen  ten   different 


436  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT   OUR   ROCK. 

times,  and  was  here  among  us  forty  days,  and  then 
He  was  seen  by  the  holiest  and  best  men  on  earth 
at  that  time  ascend  and  go  up  into  heaven.  They 
went  and  looked  into  the  sepulcher  and  found  it  was 
empty.  There  was  no  doubt  about  His  body  coming 
out  of  the  grave.  Some  men  say  they  believe  in 
Christianity,  but  they  don't  believe  Christ's  body 
came  up.  Do  you  think  they  could  have  stolen  that 
body  and  palmed  that  fraud  off  on  the  world  for 
these  eighteen  hundred  years?  Do  5^ou  think  those 
keen  Jews  of  Jerusalem  would  never  have  found  out 
the  fraud  and  deception?  Away  with  such  a  delu- 
sion. Christ  rose ;  He  burst  asunder  the  bands  of 
death.  He  has  come  out  of  the  sepulcher  and  passed 
into  the  heavens  and  taken  His  seat  at  the  right 
hand  of  God.  We  don't  worship  a  dead  Savior. 
Our  Christ  lives.  He  is  on  the  throne  to-night. 
Let  us  look  up:  for  the  time  of  our  redemption  is 
nigh.  Let  us  gird  up  our  loins  afresh.  Let  us 
buckle  on  the  whole  armor  and  fight  for  Christ. 
Let  us  hold  to  the  faith.  Let  us  not  be  influenced 
by  the  infidelity  around  us,  but  let  it  drive  us  to  the 
Bible.  Let  us  cling  to  this  good  old  book.  It  will 
be  darker  than  midnight  ere  long  if  we  let  our  con- 
fidence go  in  that  book.  I  saw  an  account  some 
time  ago  of  an  infidel  who  was  dying.  So  many 
infidels  recant  when  they  die.  Did  you  ever  hear  of 
a  Christian  recanting?  I  never  did.  Did  you  ever 
hear  of  a  Christian  dying  that  was  sorry  that  he  had 
served  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ?  I  never  did.  I  have 
heard  of  a  good  many  that  regretted  that  they  had 
not  served  Him  a  good  deal  better  than  they  had ; 
that  they  had  not  lived  more  like  Him.  The  infidel 
friends  of  this  infidel  gathered  around  him.     They 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT   OUR   ROCK.  437 

were  afraid  he  was  going  to  recant,  and  if  he  did 
the  Christians  would  make  capital  out  of  it.  They 
gathered  around  him  and  said,  "Hold  on,  hold  on 
to  your  principles;  don't  give  up  now."  The  poor 
dying  man  said,  "What  have  I  got  to  hold  on  to?" 
You  answer  the  question,  will  you?  What  has  an 
infidel  got  to  hold  on  to? 

Some  time  ago  I  was  drawing  a  contrast  between 
the  end  of  that  talented  man,  Lord  Byron,  and  Paul. 
Byron  died  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-six.  The  time 
allotted  to  man  is  three  score  years  and  ten. 

A  fast  life — a  life  of  dissipation  carried  him  off 
early.     These  are  about  the  last  lines  he  penned : 

My  days  are  in  the  yellow  leaf, 
The  flower  and  the  fruit  of  life  are  gone ; 

The  worm,  the  canker,  and  the  grave 
Are  mine  alone." 

That  is  all  he  had  at  the  close  of  life.  But  look 
at  Paul's  farewell.  He  writes  to  Timothy:  ''I  have 
fought  the  good  fight.  I  have  kept  the  faith; 
henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of 
righteousness."  There  is  a  good  deal  of  difference 
between  the  death  of  a  skeptic  and  an  infidel,  and 
the  death  of  the  righteous.  "Their  rock  is  not  as 
our  rock,  they  themselves  being  judges."  How 
often  you  have  heard  men  say,  "I  wish  I  could  be- 
lieve as  you  do."  What  do  they  want  to  believe  as 
we  do  for,  if  they  are  satisfied  with  their  rock?  "I 
wish  I  had  your  hope. ' '  What  do  you  want  our 
hope  for  if  you  are  satisfied  with  your  rock?  "Oh, 
I  wish  I  had  the  assurance  you  have."  What  do 
you  want  our  assurance  for  if  you  are  satisfied  with 
your  rock?     The   fact  is,    "their  rock  is  not  as  our 


438  THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT  OUR   ROCK. 

rock,  our  enemies  being  judges."  We  will  bring 
them  in  as  witnesses  and  let  them  testify.  Let  us, 
my  friends,  hold  on  to  the  Word  of  God.  When 
these  skeptics  and  infidels  talk  against  the  book,  let 
us  love  it  all  the  more.     Let  it  drive  us  to  the  Word. 

Let  us  say  we  will  give  up  life  rather  than 
that  book.  We  will  hold  on  to  that,  let  it  cost  us 
what  it  will.  The  world  may  call  us  fanatics  and 
fools,  and  all  that,  but  they  cannot  give  us  any 
worse  name  than  they  gave  the  Master.  They  called 
him  Beelzebub,  the  Prince  of  Devils,  and  we  can 
afford  to  be  called  fools  for  Christ's  sake  for  a  little 
while,  and  by  and  by  we  will  be  called  home,  and, 
if  we  will  hold  right  on,  the  end  will  be  glorious. 

A  soldier,  during  the  war,  got  up  in  one  of  our 
meetings  in  Chicago.  He  had  just  come  from  the 
battle  of  Perryville.  He  said  his  brother  came 
home  one  day  and  said  he  had  enlisted.  He  went 
down  to  the  recruiting  office  and  put  his  name  next 
to  his  brother's;  there  was  no  name  between  them; 
he  said  they  had  never  been  separated  one  day  in 
their  lives,  and  he  said  he  did  not  mean  to  have  his 
brother  go  into  the  army  without  him..  He  said 
they  went  into  the  army,  and  they  went  into  a  good 
many  battles  together.  The  terrible  battle  of  Perry- 
ville came  on.  About  lo  o'clock  in  the  morning 
his  brother  was  mortally  wounded.  A  minie  ball 
passed  through  his  lungs.  He  fell  by  his  side,  put 
his  knapsack  under  the  head  of  his  dying  brother, 
pillowed  his  head  and  made  him  as  comfortable  as 
he  could,  bent  over  and  kissed  him,  and  started 
away.  The  dying  man  says,  "Charlie,  come  back 
here.  Let  me  kiss  you  upon  your  lips.  "  He  came 
back,    and  his  brother  kissed  him  on  the  lips  and 


THEIR  ROCK  IS  NOT   O  JR   ROCK.  439 

said,  "There,  take  that  home  to  my  dear  mother, 
and  tell  her  that  I  died  praying  for  her."  And  he 
said  as  he  turned  away,  and  his  brother  was  wal- 
lowing in  his  blood,  and  the  battle  was  raging  all 
around  him,  he  heard  him  say,  "This  is  glorious." 
He  turned  around  and  went  back,  and  said,  "My 
brother,  what  is  glorious?"  "Oh,"  he  said,  "it  is 
glorious  to  die  looking  up.  I  see  Christ  in  heaven.  " 
It  is  glorious  to  die  looking  up.  But  if  we  die 
looking  up,  we  have  got  to  live  looking  up.  We 
have  got  to  live  trusting  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Oh,  in  this  dark  day  of  infidelity,  when  it  is  coming 
up  all  around,  let  us  hold  onto  the  glorious  old  Bible, 
and  to  the  blessed  teachings  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


TEKEL. 
Tekel.     Daniel  v.  25. 

I  want  to  have  you  get  the  text  to-night.  It  is 
so  short  I  am  quite  sure  you  that  have  short  memo- 
ries can  carry  it  away  with  you,  if  you  will  listen  to 
it ;  and  if  some  one  asks  you  after  the  meeting  is 
over,  I  hope  you  will  be  able  to  give  my  text  and 
the  meaning  of  it. 

In  this  short  chapter  of  thirty-one  verses  we  get 
all  we  know  about  Belshazzar.  His  history  was 
very  brief.  We  are  told  that  he  had  a  feast  for  his 
lords;  he  had  a  thousand  of  his  noblemen,  his  lords, 
his  mighty  men,  gathered  there  at  Babylon.  How 
long  that  feast  lasted  we  are  not  told.  Sometimes 
those  Eastern  feasts  used  to  last  for  six  months. 
We  are  told  that  this  young  king  was  praising  the 
gods  of  gold,  of  silver,  of  brass,  of  iron,  of  wood  and 
of  stone ;  and  all  at  once  silence  reigns  in  that  ban- 
queting hall.  The  king  had  sent  out  into  the 
heathen  temple,  and  had  had  the  golden  vessels 
that  had  been  taken  by  his  grandfather  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, that  had  been  brought  down  from  Jerusa- 
lem, brought  into  that  impious  feast,  and  while  they 
were  rioting  and  drinking  and  carousing,  judgment 
came  suddenly  and  unexpectedly.  And  I  think  if 
you  will  read  the  Word  of  God  carefully,  you  will 

440 


O  3 

o  H 

X  u 

^  i 

O  "> 


TEKEL.  443 

find  that  judgment  always  comes  suddenly  and  un- 
expectedly. While  that  feast  is  going  on  and  all 
is  merry,  over  on  the  wall,  over  the  golden  candle- 
sticks, is  seen  a  hand,  and  there  is  a  finger  writing 
the  doom  of  that  king.  He  sends  for  the  wise  men 
of  Babylon  to  come  in  and  read  that  writing.  He 
offers  the  man  that  can  read  the  writing  shall  be 
clothed  in  fine  linen  and  in  purple ;  he  shall  have 
a  golden  chain  around  his  neck,  and  shall  be  made 
the  third  ruler  in  the  realm.  Those  wise  men  tried 
to  read  it,  but  they  were  not  acquainted  with  God's 
handwriting.  That  is  the  reason  these  skeptics  and 
infidels  don't  understand  the  Bible — they  don't  know 
God's  handwriting.  With  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Chaldeans  they  could  not  make  out  that  handwrit- 
ing. They  failed — utterly  failed.  The  king  and 
all  his  lords  were  astounded.  They  never  had  seen 
it  on  that  fashion  before.  It  was  a  strange  hand- 
writing. The  Queen  comes  in,  and  she  tells  the 
Monarch  that  there  is  a  man  in  his  kingdom — he  has 
not  been  heard  of  for  fifteen  years;  where  he  has 
been  we  are  not  told;  but  she  tells  Belshazzar  that 
when  Nebuchadnezzar  reigned  and  the  wise  men 
failed  to  tell  him  his  dream,  and  the  interpretation, 
there  was  a  man  by  the  name  of  Daniel  that  could 
tell  the  king  his  dream,  and  the  interpretation,  and 
if  Belshazzar  would  send  for  this  prophet  he  might 
be  able  to  read  that  handwriting  on  the  wall.  Dan- 
iel is  sent  for  and  the  king  says  to  him,  "If  you  read 
that  handwriting  and  tell  me  what  it  is,  I  will  give 
you  great  gifts,  and  I  will  make  you  the  third  ruler 
in  the  realm."  When  that  prophet  looks  up  there 
you  can  imagine  how  silence  reigns  through  that 
audience.  Every  eye  is  upon  him.  The  king  looks 
25 


444  TEKEL. 

at  him,  and  as  he  makes  this  offer  to  the  prophet, 
the  prophet  says,  "Let  your  gifts  be  to  others,  but  I 
will  read  to  you  the  handwriting. ' '  He  knew  his 
God's  writing.  It  was  very  familiar  to  him,  and 
without  any  difficulty  he  can  read,  "Mene,  mene: 
tekel,  upharsin. "  "What  does  it  mean?"  cries 
the  king.  "Mene,  mene:  Thy  kingdom  is  num- 
bered and  finished.  Tekel :  Thou  art  weighed  in 
the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting.  Upharsin: 
Thy  kingdom  is  divided,  and  given  to  the  Medes 
and  Persians. "  And  that  night  Belshazzar's  blood 
flowed  with  the  wine  in  his  banquet  hall.  That 
very  night  they  could  hear  Cyrus  coming  with  his 
army  up  through  the  streets  of  Babylon.  He  turned 
the  Euphrates  out  of  its  channel  and  brought  his 
army  under  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  that  very 
night  Belshazzar's  army  was  defeated,  the  men 
around  the  royal  palace  were  driven  back,  Belshaz- 
zar  was  slain,  and  Darius  took  the  throne. 

But,  it  is  not  my  object  to-night  to  talk  about 
that  king  that  reigned  twenty-five  hundred  years 
ago.  I  don't  want  to  take  you  back  that  far.  I 
want  to  get  down  to  Cleveland  if  I  can.  I 
want  to  get  into  this  audience  to-night,  and  I  want 
to  ask  every  man  and  woman  in  this  assembly,  if 
you  should  be  summoned  into  eternity  at  this  hour, 
or  at  the  midnight  hour,  what  should  be  said? 
"Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances  and  art  found 
wanting. ' ' 

The  other  night  I  preached  from  the  text,  "There 
is  no  difference, ' '  and  I  tried  to  measure  men  by 
the  law.  To-night  I  propose  to  weigh  them  by  the 
law.  We  find  here  this  illustration  of  the  balances 
used   by  God   himself.      Tekel    means,  "Thou   art 


TEKEL.  445 

weighed  in  the  balances  and  art  found  wanting. " 
Let  us  imagine  there  were  scales  let  down  into  this 
building — not  of  our  making — God  i*  going  to 
weigh  us;  we  are  not  going  to  weigh  ourselves. 
The  great  trouble  with  men  is  they  are  trying  to 
weigh  themselves  all  the  while,  and  they  are  mak- 
ing balances  of  their  own.  When  we  are  weighed 
we  are  to  be  weighed  in  God's  balances — not  man's. 
The  God  who  created  us  is  going  to  weigh  us.  Let 
us  imaine  that  the  scales  are  fastened  by  a  golden 
chain  to  the  throne  of  God,  who  sits  yonder  in  the 
heavens — a  God  of  equity,  a  God  of  justice;  and 
those  balances  come  down  to-night  into  this  build- 
ing, and  here  they  are  right  before  us,  and  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  this  assembly  has  to  be 
weighed.  Now,  the  question  is,  are  you  ready  to 
be  weighed?  A  man  begins  to  look  around  to  his 
neighbors  and  other  people,  and  says,  "Yes,  I  am 
ready  to  be  weighed.  I  am  as  good  as  the  aver- 
age." But  that,  is  not  the  way  to  look  at  it.  What 
we  want  is  to  look  at  the  law.  We  are  to  be 
weighed  by  the  law  of  God.  The  God  that  created 
us  has  given  us  a  law,  and  among  all  the  skeptics 
and  infidels  that  I  have  met,  I  have  not  found  any 
that  complained  of  that  law.  The  trouble  is  not 
with  the  law.     The  trouble  is  with  ourselves. 

Now,  I  have  to-night  some  weights.  You  know 
when  you  go  into  a  store  to  buy  goods  they  take 
weights  and  weigh  out  your  goods.  Now,  I  have  ten 
weights.  I  am  going  to  put  them  in  the  balances, 
and  I  want  this  audience  to  come  up  and  get  in. 
As  I  put  the  weights  in  on  one  side,  you  come  up 
and  get  in  on  the  other  side  and  see  if  you  are  ready 
to  be  weighed  by  the  law  of  God. 


446  TEKEL. 

We  will  now  put  in  the  first  weight,  "Thou  shalt 
have  no  other  gods  before  me. ' '  People  who  live 
in  America  think  there  is  no  such  thing  as  idolatry. 
They  think  they  have  to  go  off  into  China,  Japan  or 
some  heathen  country  to  find  idols.  Don't  flatter 
yourselves.  We  have  idols  in  America.  You  have 
not  got  to  go  far  from  Cleveland  to  find  them.  You 
will  find  a  thousand  idolaters,  I  was  going  to  say, 
where  you  will  find  one  true  Christian  that  worships 
the  God  of  the  Bible.  Anything  that  a  man  thinks 
more  of  than  he  does  of  God  is  his  idol.  A  man 
may  make  an  idol  of  his  wealth.  A  man  may  make 
an  idol  of  his  wife  or  children ;  a  man  may  make 
an  idol  of  himself;  a  good  many  do  that.  They 
think  more  of  themselves  than  of  anything  else  in 
the  wide  world.  They  worship  themselves.  They 
revere  themselves.  They  honor  themselves.  Self 
is  at  the  bottom  and  top  of  every  thing  they  do. 
Then  there  are  a  good  many  that  worship  the  god 
of  pleasure.  Look  at  your  young  men  to-day  and 
your  young  ladies  that  bow  down  to  the  god  of  pleas- 
ure. "Give  me  a  night  in  the  ball-room  and  you 
may  have  heaven  with  all  its  glories.  What  do  I 
care?  Give  me  a  night  that  will  satisfy  me  in  this 
world  and  I  care  nothing  about  the  world  to  come. " 
There  are  a  good  many  gods.  It  would  take  all 
night  to  enumerate  the  gods  you  have  got  here  in 
Cleveland.  There  are  a  good  many  that  bow  down 
to  that  god  of  gold,  that  golden  calf  we  read  of  in 
Aaron's  day.  "Give  me  money"  is  the  cry  of  the 
world.  "You  may  have  the  Bible  with  all  its  offers 
of  mercy  and  heaven.  You  may  have  everything 
else  if  you  will  only  give  me  money,  and  give  me  a 
nice  house  up  here  on  the  avenue  and  a  good  turn- 


TEKEL.  447 

out  and  all  the  money  I  want.  That  is  all  I  ask 
for.  I  will  just  be  willing  to  trample  the  Bible  and 
all  its  commandments  and  all  its  offers  of  mercy 
under  my  feet.  That  is  my  god."  "Thou  shalt 
have  no  other  gods  before  me." 

Now  what  is  your  god  to-night?  What  do  you 
think  most  of  to-night?  Oh,  that  the  Spirit  of  God 
may  wake  us  up  to-night.  If  we  are  trusting  any 
idol,  if  we  have  some  idol  in  our  heart,  may  God 
tear  it  from  us,  because  God  says,  "Thou  shalt  have 
no  other  gods  before  Me."  The  sin  of  idolatry  is 
one  of  the  worst  of  sins.  In  that  Book  there  is 
more  said  against  idolatry,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
sin.  God  will  have  the  first  place  or  none.  Yet 
there  are  a  great  many  men  trying  to  give  God  the 
second  place.  They  say,  "Business  has  got  to  be 
attended  to,  I  have  got  to  attend  to  business,  and  if 
I  have  a  little  time  after  attending  to  business,  I 
will  attend  to  my  soul's  wants. "  Instead  of  giving 
the  soul  the  first  place  they  give  the  body  and  this 
life  the  first  place.  We  take  a  good  deal  better  care 
of  our  bodies  than  we  do  of  our  souls.  You  know 
that  very  well.  Most  people  think  a  great  deal 
more  of  this  life  than  of  the  life  to  come.  They 
think  a  great  deal  more  of  the  gods  around  them 
than  of  the  God  of  the  Bible  and  the  God  of  heaven. 

The  next  weight  is  very  much  like  it  We  will 
put  that  weight  right  in  the  balances,  "Thou  shalt 
not  bow  down  thyself  to  any  graven  image  or  any 
likeness  of  anything  that  is  in  heaven  above  or  that 
is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  under 
the  earth."  "Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  any 
image."  I  am  not  to  even  worship  any  cross  or 
crucifix.     I  am  not  to  bow  down  to  anything  but  the 


448  TEKEL. 

God  of  heaven.  I  am  not  to  worship  any  pictures, 
even  if  they  are  pictures  of  Jesus  Christ — not  any 
graven  image.  I  think  it  is  a  great  mistake  that 
artists  try  to  make  pictures  of  the  God  of  heaven 
and  earth.  It  is  a  fearful  thing.  We  are  not  to 
make  any  graven  image  of  anything  and  then  bow 
down  to  it. 

But  I  must  pass  on  rapidly.  "Thou  shalt  not  take 
the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain.  "  Blasphem- 
ers come  on  now  and  be  weighed.  We  will  put  that 
in  the  balances.  You  step  in  and  see  how  quick 
you  will  go  up  —  how  quick  the  balance  will 
kick  the  beam.  If  every  blasphemer  in  this  house 
was  to  be  weighed  to-night,  what  would  become  of 
his  soul? 

"Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy 
God  in  vain. "  It  is  astonishing  to  hear  men  blas- 
pheme and  curse  God,  and  when  you  talk  to  them 
they  say,  "I  don't  mean  anything  by  it."  Well, 
God  means  a  good  deal  when  He  says  He  "will  not 
hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  His  name  in  vain." 

Do  you  know  that  profanity  is  just  man's  showing 
his  enmity  to  God?  If  God  hadn't  told  man  not  to 
swear,  I  don't  think  he  would  have  thought  of  it, 
but  just  because  God  has  said,  "Thou  shalt  not 
swear, ' '  he  wants  to  show  his  contempt  of  God  by 
trampling  His  commandment  under  foot  and  spurn- 
ing the  grace  of  God.  They  say  they  can't  help  it. 
Yet  these  very  men,  when  their  mother  is  around, 
seldom  if  ever  swear.  That  shows  they  have  more 
respect  for  their  mother  than  they  have  for  the  God 
of  heaven.  If  the  wife  happens  to  be  around,  or 
the  children  very  often,  they  will  not  swear.  Yet 
they  will  curse  God,  and  swear  to  God's  face — chal- 


TEKEL.  449 

lenge  God,  as  it  were,  to  do  his  worst,  and  blas- 
pheme. Yet  when  you. talk  to  them  about  it  they 
say,  "Oh,  well,  I  can't  help  it."  It  is  false.  Man 
may  not  of  his  own  strength  be  able  to  turn  from 
that  sin,  but  God  will  give  him  grace.  If  a  man  has 
a  new  heart,  he  will  have  no  desire  to  swear. 

If  a  man  is  born  of  God  he  will  not  want  to  take 
God's  name  in  vain.  Let  the  blasphemers  in  this 
house  to-night  remember  that  God  is  not  going  to 
"hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  His  name  in  vain." 
If  every  blasphemer  in  this  assembly  should  be  cut 
down  to-night  with  cursing  and  blasphemy  upon  his 
conscience  and  upon  his  heart,  what  would  become 
of  his  soul?  It  is  a  fearful  thing.  You  look  upon  a 
thief  as  a  horrid  monster,  many  of  you,  and  think 
he  is  a  curse  to  the  community,  but  is  it  not  as  bad 
to  break  God's  laws  as  to  break  the  laws  of  the 
state?  You  elect  men  to  your  legislature  to  make 
laws  for  you,  and  you  think  the  laws  which  they 
make  ought  to  be  revered  and  honored  more  than 
the  laws  of  high  heaven.  Here  is  a  law  from 
heaven,  and  that  law  says  "thou  shalt  not  take  the 
name, of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain."  Man  shows 
contempt  for  God  and  his  laws  and  goes  on  blas- 
pheming. 

The  next  weight  we  will  put  in  the  balances  is, 
"Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy."  As 
it  looks  to  me,  we  are  drifting  into  a  dark  age.  We 
thought  when  we  had  slavery  in  this  country  that  it 
was  a  great  curse  to  the  land ;  but  we  have  some- 
thing worse  to-day.  If  this  nation  gives  up  its  Sab- 
bath, we  are  not  going  to  see  blood  flow  in  a  few 
Southern  States,  but  it  will  not  be  long  before  it  will 
flow  in  all  our  cities.       It  won't  be  long  before  we 


450  TEKEL. 

will  see  a  darker  day  than  this  nation  has  ever  seen. 
No  republic  can  exist  without  righteousness.  If 
men  are  going  to  violate  the  law  of  God;  if  you 
teach  men  to  break  God's  law,  how  long  will  it  be 
before  they  will  take  the  laws  of  man  in  their  hands 
and  tear  them,  as  it  were,  to  pieces  and  throw  them 
to  the  winds  and  trample  them  under  their  feet? 

We  have  to  teach  men  to  honor  God's  law  if  we 
expect  them  to  honor  the  law  of  man.  We  see  this 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath  increasing  every  year, 
giving  up  a  little  here  and  giving  up  a  little  there. 
A  few  years  ago  in  Chicago  we  did  not  have  a  theater 
open  on  the  Sabbath,  but  now  every  theater  is  open. 
Every  Sunday  night  those  theaters  are  crowded.  I 
want  to  say  to  the  working  men,  if  you  give  up  the 
Sabbath,  you  give  up  the  best  friend  you've  got,  and 
it  will  not  be  long  before  these  capitalists  will  take 
your  Sabbath  and  make  you  work  seven  days  in  the 
week,  and  you  will  not  earn  a  dollar  more  than  you 
do  now  in  six  days.  God  is  our  friend ;  he  would 
not  have  given  us  one  day  in  seven  unless  it  was  for 
our  good.  Man  needs  it,  beast  needs  it.  So  let  us 
honor  the  Sabbath  day  and  keep  it  holy.  If  we  have 
to  give  up  our  business  and  get  some  other  business, 
let  us  do  it  even  if  we  don't  make  quite  so  much 
money.  It  is  a  good  deal  better  for  us  to  be  right, 
to  know  we  are  honoring  God,  and  to  have  God  on 
our  side,  than  it  is  to  be  breaking  God's  law.  If  a 
father  teaches  his  child  not  to  observe  the  Sabbath, 
takes  him  out  riding  on  Sunday,  teaches  him  not  to 
go  to  the  house  of  God,  it  will  not  be  long  before 
that  boy  will  break  his  father's  commandments. 
You  teach  him  to  dishonor  God's  law  and  he  will 
dishonor  yours.     Is  not  that  so?     Does  history  not 


TEKEL.  451 

teach  you  that?  Look  around  you.  Have  you  got 
to  go  to  the  Bible  to  find  that  out?  Is  it  not  so? 
You  take  a  man  that  goes  around  on  the  Sabbath, 
who  don't  teach  his  boy  to  go  to  Sabbath-school  and 
to  church,  but  teaches  him  to  play  marbles,  and  it 
will  not  be  long  before  that  boy  will  break  that 
father's  heart — if  he  has  a  heart. 

Throw  this  commandment  into  the  balances  and 
Sabbath- breaker,  step  in.  If  you  do,  what  will 
become  of  you?  You  will  find  written  on  the  wall, 
"Tekel.  Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances  and  art 
found  wanting. "  If  a  man  cannot  keep  one  day  out 
of  seven,  what  is  he  going  to  do  with  that  eternal 
Sabbath  in  heaven?  He  will  not  want  to  go  there. 
Heaven  would  be  hell  to  him. 

I  must  pass  on.  "Honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother."  That  is  another  thing  that  shows  we  are 
drifting  into  a  dark  age.  Men  seem  to  be  void  of 
natural  affection.  Now,  I  v/ant  to  call  your  atten- 
tion to  this  fact ;  wherever  you  see  a  young  man  or 
young  lady  treating  their  parents  with  scorn  and 
contempt,  you  may  just  mark  this,  they  will  never 
prosper.  I  am  not  an  old  man  and  I  am  not  a  prophet, 
but  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  notice  that  I  have 
yet  to  find  the  first  case  where  a  young  man  or 
young  lady  has  started  out  in  life  that  has  dishonored 
father  and  mother,  that  has  treated  them  with  scorn 
and  contempt,  that  has  ever  prospered.  I  believe  to- 
day one  reason  why  so  many  men's  ways  are  hedged 
up,  and  they  do  not  prosper  is  because  they  have 
dishonored  their  parents.  I  do  not  know  of  any- 
thing that  is  more  contemptible.  I  do  not  know  of 
anything  that  sinks  a  man  lower  in  my  estimation, 
than  to  hear  him  speak  disrespectfully  of  his  father 
26 


452  TEKEL. 

and  mother,  that  cared  for  him  in  his  childhood,  that 
watched  over  him  in  sickness  and  did  everything 
they  could  for  him. 

A  young  man  that  will  go  out  and  get  drunk  and 
come  home  at  midnight,  or  i  or  2  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  knowing  his  gray-haired  mother  is  sitting 
up  for  him  and  weeping,  is  crushing  that  mother, 
just  breaking  her  heart,  just  murdering  her  by 
degrees.  I  do  not  know  why  it  is  not  just  as  bad  to 
murder  your  father  and  mother,  break  their  hearts 
and  take  months  to  do  it  and  to  kill  them,  as  it  is 
to  take  a  revolver  and  shoot  them  down  at  once. 
There  are  hundreds  of  young  men  doing  that  to-day. 
You  haven't  got  to  go  out  of  Cleveland  to  find  them. 
I  venture  to  say  while  I  am  talking  here  to-night 
some  young  man  is  in  a  brothel  or  in  some  saloon 
or  billiard  hall,  who  will  go  home  to-night  or  to- 
morrow morning  beastly  drunk  and  curse  the 
mother  that  gave  him  birth,  and  curse  her  gray 
hairs,  and  perhaps  lift  up  that  great  strong  arm  of 
his  and  beat  that  mother.  Or  some  husband  will 
go  and  be  untrue  to  some  wife  and  go  home,  and  if 
she  says  a  word,  down  comes  that  right  arm  upon 
her.  Yes,  it  is  only  one,  two  or  three  murderer^ 
we  have  perhaps  in  jail  at  a  time,  but  how  many 
walk  the  streets  of  Cleveland  to-day !  I  tell  you  a 
young  man  that  don't  honor  his  father  and  mother, 
need  not  expect  to  prosper  in  this  life,  or  in  the  life 
to  come. 

There  was  a  young  man  who  used  to  think  con- 
siderable of  his  parents.  He  was  a  very  fine  look- 
ing young  man.  His  father  was  a  great  drunkard, 
and  his  mother  used  to  take  in  washing  just  to  give 
that  boy  an  education.     She  kept  him  at  school  and 


TEKEL.  453 

worked  hard  to  do  it.  But  one  day  he  was  out  on 
the  sidewalk  talking  with  that  mother.  She  had 
been  washing  and  was  -not  dressed  as  well  as  some 
ladies.  He  saw  a  school-mate  coming  towards  him 
and  he  walked  away  from  that  mother.  The  school- 
mate asked  him  who  that  woman  was  he  was  talk- 
ing to,  and  he  said  it  was  his  washer-woman. 
Ashamed  to  own  his  own  mother.  You  laugh,  young 
lady.  Shame  on  such  a  man  as  that.  I  think  we 
ought  to  be  ashamed  of  a  man  that  would  speak  that 
way  of  a  mother  who  is  toiling  day  and  night  to 
give  him  an  education.  "Honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother. ' '  Treat  them  kindly,  you  will  not  always 
have  them.  By  and  by  they  will  be  gone.  No  one 
in  the  wide  world  loves  you  like  that  mother.  No 
one  in  the  wide  world  loves  you  like  that  father. 
Treat  them  kindly.  Make  the  evening  of  their 
lives  as  sweet  as  you  can.  It  will  come  back 
again.  You  will  have  children  by  and  by,  perhaps, 
and  they  will  treat  you  kindly.  But  bear  in  mind 
if  you  treat  that  father  and  mother  with  scorn  and 
contempt,  by  and  by,  after  a  few  years  have  rolled 
around  you  will  be  paid  back  in  your  own  coin. 
"Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not  mocked.  Whatso- 
ever a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap. ' '  The 
reaping  is  coming,  and  men  will  have  to  reap  the 
same  seed  that  they  sow. 

You  treat  that  aged  mother  of  yours  with  scorn 
and  contempt  and  expect  God  to  smile  on  you  and 
prosper  you,  and  you  will  be  deceived. 

If  there  is  a  man  or  woman  in  this  audience  to- 
night that  is  not  treating  father  or  mother  with  re- 
spect or  kindness,  let  him  step  into  the  balances 
and  see  how  quick  they  will  strike  the  beam.     You 


454  TEKEL. 

will  be  found  lighter  than  dust  in  the  balances. 
You  will  find  that  word  "Tekel"  blazing  out. 
"Thou  art  weighed  in  the  .  balances  and  art  found 
wanting." 

But  I  must  pass  on.  "Thou  shalt  not  kill. "  I 
suppose  if  you  had  said  a  few  months  ago  to  some 
of  those  men  that  have  been  killing  lately  that  they 
were  going  to  come  to  that,  they  would  have  said, 
"Am  I  a  dog  that  I  should  do  it?"  They  thought 
they  would  not;  but  when  Satan  takes  possession 
of  a  man  you  don't  know  what  he  will  do;  you  can't 
tell.  When  a  man  goes  on  step  by  step  from  one 
thing  to  another,  it  will  not  be  long  before  he  will 
be  guilty  of  almost  any  crime.  I  have  not  got  to 
kill  a  man  to  be  a  murderer.  If  I  wish  a  man  dead, 
I  am  a  murderer  at  heart.  That  is  murder.  If  I 
get  so  angry  with  a  man  that  I  wish  him  dead,  I 
am  guilty  in  the  sight  of  God.  God  looks  at  the 
heart,  not  at  the  outward  man.  We  only  look  at 
the  acts  of  men,  but  God  looks  down  in  the  hearts. 
If  I  have  murder  in  my  heart,  if  I  wish  a  man  or 
woman  dead,  I  am  guilty.  "Thou  shalt  not  kill." 
As  I  said  before,  there  are  a  good  many  men  who 
are  not  looked  upon  as  murderers,  that  really  kill 
their  parents,  kill  their  children,  kill  their  wives. 
How  many  drunken  men  have  murdered  their  wives! 
They  have  literally  killed  them  inch  by  inch.  They 
have  gone  to  the  altar  and  sworn  before  the  God  of 
heaven  they  would  love,  cherish,  protect  and  sup- 
port that  woman,  and  inside  of  five  years  they  have 
become  horrid  monsters,  and  beaten  that  defence- 
less woman,  until  at  last  she  has  gone  with  a  broken 
heart  into  the  grave.  Nothing  but  a  cruel  husband 
murdered  that  woman.     "Thou  shalt  not  kill,"'     Do 


TEKEL.  455 

you  think  a  God  of  judgment,  a  God  of  equity,  a 
God  of  mercy  will  not  bring  these  men  into  judg- 
ment? 

But  I  must  pass  on.  We  will  put  these  six 
weights  right  up  there,  and  come  to  the  next.  I 
would  pass  over  this  commandment  if  I  dared,  but 
when  I  see  what  the  enemy  is  doing,  when  I  see 
the  terrible,  terrible  state  of  things  we  are  having 
all  around,  in  all  kinds  of  society,  high  and  low,  I 
feel  that  I  must  cry  out  and  spare  not.  "Thou 
shalt  not  commit  adultery."  It  is  a  sin  that  is  not 
much  spoken  of.  It  is  one  of  those  things  that  we 
like  to  pass  over.  We  hear  a  good  deal  about  intem- 
perance, but  the  twin  sister  of  intemperance  is  adul- 
tery to-day.  I  want  to  read  to  you  something  that 
will  express  what  I  want  to  say,  perhaps,  better  than 
I  can  myself — the  seventh  chapter  of  Proverbs. 

I  want  to  say  to  the  young  people  in  this  audience 
to-night,  I  do  not  know  of  a  quicker  way  toa'uin,  I 
do  not  know  of  a  quicker  way  down  to  hellnhan  the 
way  of  the  adulterer.  Do  you  know  that  the  aver- 
age life  of  a  fallen  woman  is  only  seven  years?  It 
is  very  short.  How  a  woman  can  surrender  her 
virtue  and  take  that  road  is  one  of  the  greatest 
mysteries  of  the  present  day,  when  they  can  look 
around  and  see  how  they  have  brought  ruin  and 
blight  upon  their  life,  and  made  it  dark  and  bitter. 

Not  long  ago  a  scene  occurred  in  Chicago,  of  a 
mother  that  left  her  family  in  Iowa  and  a  man  that 
left  his,  and  they  came  to  Chicago,  and  after  getting 
tired  and  sick  of  their  life,  and  remorse,  I  suppose, 
seized  hold  of  him,  at  the  hotel  where  they  were,  he 
cut  her  throat  from  ear  to  ear,  and  as  she  fled  from 
him  into  the  hall,  he  cut  his  own  from  ear  to  ear 


456  TEKEL. 

and  fled  into  the  hall  and  embraced  her,  and  the 
adulterer  and  adulteress  died  in  each  other's  arms. 
What  a  fearful  ending !  That  is  occurring  all  the 
while  from  one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  "Thou 
shalt  not  commit  adultery ! ' '  And  I  want  to  say  to 
these  libertines  —  these  men  that  think  they  can 
commit  that  sin  and  cover  it  up,  and  think  it  will 
never  come  to  light ;  some  of  them  come  to  our  pub- 
lic meetings;  some  of  them  come  into  our  churches, 
and  they  sweep  down  the  broad  aisle,  perhaps,  with 
their  wives  upon  their  arms;  they  take  the  best 
seats,  perhaps,  in  our  churches,  and  they  think  the 
crime  is  covered  up — be  not  deceived.  You  ruin 
some  man's  daughter,  and  some  vile  wretch  will 
ruin  yours.     You  will  find  it  out  by  and  by. 

Do  you  think  that  God  is  not  going  to  bring  men 
to  judgment  for  this  thing?  Do  you  think  that  men 
can  go  on,  and  that  they  can  get  clear,  and  the 
woman  be  cast  out?  They  say  the  thing  is  unequal. 
Well,  it  may  be  among  men,  but  bear  in  mind  there 
is  a  God  of  equity  sitting  in  the  heavens,  and  this 
thing  is  going  to  become  straight  by  and  by.  Not 
that  the  women  are  excused ;  one  is  as  bad  as  the 
other.  It  is  a  sin,  and  it  is  a  fearful  sin.  It  is  a  sin 
we  must  cry  out  against  at  the  present  time.  Don't 
let  any  adulterer  or  adulteress  think  he  or  she  is 
going  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  And  I  want  to  say 
to  the  men  here  to-night,  if  you  are  bound  to  some 
fallen  woman,  if  you  are  to-night  guilty  of  that 
awful  sin,  give  it  up  or  give  up  heaven.  If  God 
should  summon  you  into  those  balances  to-night, 
what  would  become  of  you,  vile  adulterer,  what 
would    become    of    you?      And  you,   poor,    fallen 


TEKEL.  457 

woman ! — you  step  in  and  see  what  would  become  of 
your  soul.     "Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery." 

I  want  to  say  once  more  before  I  pass  this  com- 
mandment, that  people  may  cavil  and  laugh  and 
make  light  of  it,  as  they  do;  but  it  is  one  of  the 
greatest  evils  of  the  present  day.  Many  a  man's 
life  is  ruined,  many  a  family  has  been  broken  up, 
and  many  a  mother  has  gone^down  to  her  grave  with 
a  broken  heart,  because  a  son  or  a  daughter  has 
been  ruined.  It  is  a  time  that  the  church  of  God 
should  send  up  one  cry  that  our  children  should  be 
kept.  It  is  a  day  of  temptation.  It  is  a  day  of 
trial  on  our  right  hand  and  on  our  left.  We  are  liv- 
ing in  a  day  of  decayed  conscience,  as  some  one  has 
said.  Men  are  losing  their  consciences.  It  is 
astonishing  how  a  man  can  talk.  I  got  a  letter  from 
a  man  to-day — the  first  letter  I  got  to-day.  He 
stated  he  was  living  this  kind  of  a  life,  and  he  seems 
to  have  no  conscience  about  it,  and  he  wanted  to 
have  me  pray  that  they  may  be  separated,  and  he  says 
if  there  is  a  God  they  will  be  separated.  He  doubts 
whether  or  not  there  is  a  God.  Men  get  so  steeped 
in  sin  that  they  want  to  stifle  conscience,  they  want 
to  deceive  themselves,  and  they  begin  to  reason 
that  there  is  no  God  at  all.  You  will  find  out  by 
and  by  there  is  a  God.  Bear  in  mind  God  will  bring 
you  into  judgment  by  and  by.  Because  sentence  is 
not  executed  at  once  is  no  sign  He  is  not  going  to 
execute  the  sentence.  Because  God  don't  bring 
men  to  judgment  a,t  once  is  no  sign  he  will  not  come 
to  judgment.  He  will  come.  Paul  reasoned  with 
Felix  of  "righteousness,  temperance  0x16.  judgment  to 
come. "  God  has  appointed  a  day  when  He  will  judge 
the  world.      Men  may  cavil  and  laugh  as  much  as 


458  TEKEL. 

they  like,  but  the  day  is  appointed,  the  hour  is 
fixed,  and  men  have  got  to  come  to  judgment,  and 
then  sins  which  you  have  committed  in  secret,  and 
which  you  think  are  covered  up,  will  come  to  light 
and  be  made  public,  unless  they  are  covered  by  the 
blood  of  Christ;  unless  you  repent  and  turn  from 
them  and  ask  God  to  haye  mercy  upon  you.  They 
will  be  blazoned  out  to  that  great  assembled  uni- 
verse. 

But  I  must  pass  on.  "Thou  shalt  not  steal. "  Is 
there  a  man  here  to-night  that  is  a  thief?  Oh,  no, 
you  can  say  there  are  no  thieves  here.  Ah,  don't 
you  flatter  yourself.  There  is  many  a  man  that 
thinks  he  is  not  a  thief,  that  is  a  thief.  When  that 
young  man  takes  twenty-five  cents  out  of  his  em- 
ployer's till  to  go  to  the  theater,  he  is  a  thief  as 
much  as  if  he  stole  five  thousand  dollars  and  got 
caught.  When  a  man  appropriates  to  himself  one 
dollar  that  belongs  to  some  one  else,  he  is  a  thief  in 
the  sight  of  God.  A  drop  of  water  is  water  as  much 
as  Lake  Erie  is  water;  and  the  man  that  steals  five 
cents  is  a  thief  in  the  sight  of  God  as  much  as  if  he 
stole  five  hundred  dollars.  Some  men  think  that 
they  are  not  thieves  unless  they  get  caught;  and 
they  think  if  they  cover  up  their  tracks  and  don't  get 
caught  they  never  will  be  brought  to  judgment. 
God's  eyes  are  going  to  and  fro  through  the  earth. 
If  you  have  a  dollar  that  belongs  to  some  one  else, 
I  beg  of  you,  as  a  friend,  to  make  restitution  before 
you  go  to  bed  to-night.  Pay  it  back  if  you  want 
the  light  of  heaven  to  flash  across  your  path,  if  you 
want  the  smile  and  approbation  of  God  to  rest  upon 
you,  pay  it  back.  You  will  not  prosper  as  long  as 
you  have  some  one  else's  money.     "Thou  shalt  not 


hi^   ^    :p«!' 


->»-v.;r-'.: 


TEKEL.  461 

Steal."  Now  go  to  thinking.  Have  you  anything 
that  belongs  to  some  one  else?  Have  you  cheated 
any  one?  Have  you  jumped  on  to  those  horse  cars 
and  not  paid  your  fare  sometimes  when  there  was  a 
great  crowd  and  the  conductor  did  not  come  around 
for  it?  That  is  stealing  just  as  much  as  if  you  had 
been  a  defaulter  or  a  forger.  Have  you  been  on  the 
steam  cars,  and  the  conductor  did  not  happen  to 
come  around  and  get  your  fare,  and  have  you  said, 
"I  have  got  a  ride  for  nothing"?  You  are  a  thief. 
You  laugh  at  it,  but  it  is  not  to  be  laughed  at. 
What  we  want  to-day  is  righteousness  iu  this  nation. 
What  we  want  in  the  church  to-day  above  every 
thing  else  is  downright  honesty;  and  may  God  give 
it  to  us!  These  things  are  not  to  be  laughed  at. 
Do  you  know  how  men  become  defaulters?  Just  in 
that  way.  They  take  a  little  to  begin  with,  and 
conscience  comes  up  and  smites  them ;  but  the  next 
day  they  take  a  little  more.  Conscience  don't 
trouble  them  so  much.  By  and  by  they  stifle  con- 
science, and  they  can  go  on  and  do  anything.  That 
is  the  way  these  forgers  begin.  That  is  the  way 
these  defaulters  begin.  That  is  the  way  these  great 
noted  criminals  begin.  It  is  just  the  entering 
wedge.  It  is  a  little  thing  in  their  sight.  But  I  tell 
you  what  we  want  to  remedy  is  sin,  and  sin  is  not 
little.  If  there  is  a  man  here  to-night  who  has  com- 
menced a  downward  course,  commenced  a  dishonest 
life,  I  want  to  beg  of  you  to-night,  before  you  sleep, 
make  up  your  mind,  God  helping  you,  that  you  will 
straighten  up  any  dishonesty  of  which  you  have 
been  guilty,  let  it  cost  you  what  it  will.  Make  resti- 
tution. 

"Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness. "  I  wish  I  had 


462  TEKEL. 

time  to  dwell  on  that,  and  the  next:  "Thou  shalt 
not  covet. " 

There  are  those  ten  weights.  Now,  you  cannot 
be  weighed  by  one  of  them ;  you  must  be  weighed 
by  the  whole.  Is  there  a  man  or  woman  in  this 
audience  that  is  ready  to  be  weighed?  Come.  I 
have  heard  so  much  about  morals — is  there  a  moral 
man  here  to-night?  Are  you  ready?  Have  you  not 
broken  that  decalogue?  Is  there  a  man  or  woman  in 
this  audience  that  has  never  broken  any  of  those  com- 
mandments? If  you  have  broken  one,  you  are  guilty. 
Those  are  not  ten  different  laws,  but  one  law ;  and  if 
I  have  broken  one  of  those  commandments,  I  have 
broken  the  law  of  God,  and  I  am  guilty. 

Let  the  moralist  come  up  to-night  and  step  into 
the  scales,  and  see  how  quick  he  will  kick  the  beam. 
Bring  on  the  moralist.  He  walks  up  to  those  golden 
scales,  and  he  sees  written  there,  "Except  a  man 
be  born  again  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 
He  says,  "You  will  excuse  me  to-night,  sir.  I  can't 
be  weighed. ' '  He  don't  like  to  step  in  over  the  text. 
He  knows  very  well  he  will  be  found  wanting.  He 
knows  very  well  it  will  be  said,  "Tekel:  Thou  art 
weighed  in  the  balances  and  art  found  wanting.'' 
He  goes  around  on  the  other  side  of  the  scales  and 
he  sees,  "Except  ye  be  converted,  and  become  as 
little  children,  5^6  shall  not  enter  into  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven."  "Well,"  he  says,  "I  think  I  will  not 
be  weighed  to-night."  He  is  not  quite  ready  to  be 
weighed  after  all.  You  know  these  texts  were  given 
by  Christ  to  the  moralists  of  His  day.  But,  says  the 
moralist,  "I  will  step  in,  I  guess,  on  the  other  side. 
I  don't  like  to  step  in  over  this  text, "  and  he  goes  on 
around  on  the  third  side,  and  there  he  sees:  "Ex- 


TEKEL.  463 

cept  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish."  He 
says,  "I  will  not  go  in  on  that  side."  He  steps 
around  to  the  fourth  side.  "Except  your  righteous- 
ness shall  exceed  the  righteousness  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  "Well,"  he  says,  "I  tljink 
I  will  not  be  weighed  in  those  balances. ' '  But  bear 
in  mind  God  is  going  to  weigh  you  in  them.  You 
have  got  to  be  weighed  in  them. 

Let  the  rumseller  step  up  to  the  scales  and  see  if 
he  is  ready  to  be  weighed.  As  he  steps  up  to  those 
scales,  he  finds  written  there  in  golden  letters :  "Woe 
be  to  the  man  that  putteth  the  bottle  to  his  neigh- 
bor's lips."  "Well,"  he  says,  "I  think  I  won't  be 
weighed  to-night. ' '     He  is  not  ready. 

Let  the  drunkard  come,  rum  bottle  in  hand.  He 
looks  at  those  scales  and  sees:  "No  drunkard  shall 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  He  says,  "I  will  not 
step  in  there  to-night.  I  am  afraid  it  will  be  found 
written  on  the  wall,  as  it  was  on  Belshazzer's  wall: 
"Tekel.  Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art 
found  wanting, ' ' 

Where  is  there  a  man  to-night  that  is  ready  to  be 
weighed.  I  can  imagine  a  man  up  in  the  gallery 
says,  ' '  I  wonder  what  Mr.  Moody  would  do  if  he  was 
to  be  weighed.  I  wonder  if  Mr.  Moody  is  ready  to 
step  into  those  scales  and  to  be  weighed."  I  want 
to  tell  you  I  am ;  and  I  say  it,  I  hope,  without  any 
boasting  or  egotism.  You  may  put  into  the  scales 
all  those  commandments,  every  one  of  them,  and  I 
am  ready  to  step  in  against  them.  Do  you  want  to 
know  how?  I  will  take  Christ  in  with  me.  I  took 
Him  as  my  Savior  twenty  odd  years  ago.  I  am 
ready  to    step  into  those  scales  with  Him  at  any 


464  TEKEL. 

time.  He  will  bring  it  down.  He  kept  the  law. 
He  was  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness'  sake. 
That  is  man's  only  hope.  I  would  not  dare  to  be 
weighed  without  him ;  but  with  Him,  I  am  ready  at 
any  time,  day  or  night.  If  God  calls  me  to  step 
into  those  scales  to-night,  I  will  step  in ;  and  I  will 
step  in  with  a  shout,  too,  and  I  will  not  be  looking 
on  the  wall  to  see  if  it  is  written  "Tekel:  Thou  art 
weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art  found  wanting, " 
because  Christ  has  kept  the  law,  and  I  have  got 
Him.  He  offered  himself  to  me,  and  I  took  Him. 
He  offers  himself  to  every  guilty  sinner  here  to- 
night. To  every  mai\  and  woman  who  has  broken 
that  law  there  is  a  Savioi  offered,  there  is  salvation 
offered,  and  you  can  have  it  and  live  forever.  But 
without  Christ,  what  are  you  going  to  do? 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


NO   DIFFERENCE. 

You  will  find  my  text  to-night  in  the  third  chapter 
of  Romans  and  the  2 2d  verse.  "For  there  is  no  differ- 
ence. "  I  will  venture  to  say  there  are  a  good  many 
here  to-night  that  will  differ  with  the  text.  But  I 
didn't  make  it;  and  I  am  not  going  to  quarrel  with 
you.  If  you  don't  like  it  you  must  settle  it  with 
the  Word  of  God.  I  just  give  it  you  as  I  have  got  it. 
If  I  had  a  servant  working  for  me  and  I  should  send 
that  servant  to  deliver  a  message,  and  he  thought  it 
didn't  sound  right  and  should  change  the  message, 
I  think  I  should  change  servants,  I  should  want  him 
to  deliver  the  message  just  as  I  sent  it.  If  I  am 
going  to  be  the  messenger  of  God  to-night — if  I  am 
going  to  preach  the  gospel  to  you,  I  have  to  give 
you  the  law  as  well  as  the  gospel. 

Now,  we  find  in  this  third  chapter  of  Romans, 
Paul  is  bringing  in  the  law  to  show  man  his  guilt. 
If  a  man  wants  to  read  his  own  biography  he  should 
turn  to  the  third  chapter  of  Romans  and  he  will  find 
it  all  there.  A  great  many  men  are  anxious  to  get 
their  lives  written.  Why,  they  are  already  written. 
God  knows  more  about  you  than  you  do  about  your- 
selves. If  you  want  to  find  out  what  a  man  is  by 
nature,  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  read  the  third  chapter 
of  Romans.     It  is  all  there.     If  you  want  to  find  out 

465 


466  NO  DIFFERENCE. 

what  God  is,  read  the  third  chapter  of  John  and  you 
will  find  that  God  so  loved  the  world,  even  fallen 
man,  that  He  gave  His  Son  to  die  for  him. 

Now,  I  do  not  know  a  text  in  the  Bible  that  the 
natural  man  dislikes  any  more  than  this  one.  I 
have  a  great  many  people  attack  me  for  preaching 
this  doctrine  of  "No  difference."  I  was  led  to  take 
it  up  to-night  by  what  I  heard  last  night  in  the 
inquiry  room.  There  was  a  moralist  there — that  is, 
he  said  he  was  a  moralist — and  he  could  not  under- 
stand just  how  he  was  as  bad  as  other  people.  Now, 
the  longer  I  live,  and  the  more  I  mingle  with  men, 
the  more  I  am  convinced  that  moralists  are  scarce, 
after  all.  There  are  a  great  many  who  think  they 
are  very  moral ;  but  I  venture  to  say,  if  your  sins 
and  my  sins — I  won't  leave  out  one  now;  I  take 
every  man  and  woman  in  this  audience — if  all  our 
secret  thoughts,  and  all  that  has  been  in  our  hearts, 
should  be  written  on  yonder  wall,  there  would  be 
the  greatest  stampede  you  ever  saw.  You  would 
get  but  of  this  hall  as  if  you  were  struck  with  the 
plague.  You  know  very  well  that  if  your  sins  were 
all  brought  to  light  you  would  not  talk  about  being 
moralists,  or  about  being  so  very  good.  Now,  man 
is  not  so  very  good  by  nature  after  all.  "The  heart 
is  deceitful  above  all  things. ' '  Man  is  being  deceived 
by  his  own  heart.  Man  is  bad  by  nature.  I  don't 
think  you  have  got  to  go  inside  of  yourself  to  find 
out  that  you  are  bad.  If  you  will  only  get  a  look  at 
yourself,  if  man  could  only  see  himself  as  God  sees 
him,  he  would  not  be  talking  about  his  righteous- 
ness.    It  would  be  gone  very  quick. 

Now,  just  the  moment  we  begin  to  preach  from 
this  text  man  begins  to  strengthen  up  and  say,  "I 


NO  DIFFERENCE.  467 

don't  believe  it."      We  think  we  are  a  little  better 
than  our  neighbors — a  little  better  than  other  people. 

The  next  verse  throws  light  upon  it.  "There  is 
no  difference,  for  all  have  sinned  and  come  short  of 
the  glory  of  God. "     Every  one. 

It  would  be  an  absurd  thing  to  make  a  law  with- 
out a  penalty.  I  believe  the  state  of  Massachusetts, 
a  few  years  ago,  did  make  a  law  without  a  penalty, 
and  that  legislature  became  the  laughing  stock  of 
the  whole  state.  What  is  a  law  without  a  penalty? 
Suppose  your  state  legislature  should  pass  a  law 
that  no  man  in  the  state  of  Ohio  shall  steal,  and  fix 
no  penalty  to  it,  the  thieves  would  be  in  your  houses 
before  you  got  home  to-night.  What  do  they  care 
for  a  law  that  has  no  penalty?  God's  law  has  a 
penalty  to  it.      There  are  not  ten  different  laws. 

They  are  one  law.  Some  people  seem  to  think 
the  ten  commandments  are  ten  different  laws.  They 
are  one  law.  If  you  have  broken  one  of  them  you 
have  broken  the  law,  and  are  therefore  guilty.  I 
need  not  break  the  decalogue  to  be  a  sinner ;  if  I 
break  one  of  these  commandments  I  have  broken 
the  law  of  God.  You  need  not  take  up  all  the  rails 
on  the  railroad  track  between  here  and  Chicago  to 
have  a  collision — only  one  rail.  A  man  may  say  he 
has  a  good  fence  around  his  pasture,  but  if  he  leaves 
one  gap  the  cattle  get  out.  What  is  the  fence  good 
for?  Take  one  inch  of  pipe  out  of  that  gas  pipe  and 
the  gas  is  cut  off  from  this  building.  You  need  not 
take  out  all  the  pipe — take  out  one  inch  and  there  is 
no  gas.  So  if  a  man  has  broken  the  law  of  God  he 
is  guilty;  he  is  a  criminal  in  the  sight  of  God.  That 
is  the  teaching  of  the  third  chapter  of  Romans.  You 
will  find  it  all  through  the  teachings  of  Christ :  he 


468  NO  DIFFERENCE. 

that  breake'  i  the  least  of  the  law  is  guilty  of  all. 
Why?  Because  he  has  broken  the  law  of  God.  He 
has  transg-'  ""ssed  the  law  of  God  and  become  guilty 
in  the  sigl  of  a  pure  God.  A  perfect  God  could 
give  nothii^-'g  but  a  perfect  law — a  perfect  standard. 
There  is  no  trouble  abouf  the  law.  Your  life  and 
property  w^uld  not  be  safe  if  it  were  not  for  the  law. 
The  law  is  "ill  right.  Skeptics  find  fault  with  the 
Bible.  Yod  seldom  find  an  infidel  attacking  the  law 
of  God.  That  is  all  right.  We  have  to  have  law — • 
could  not  live  without  law.  The  trouble  is,  man 
has  broken  the  law  of  God.  If  you  have  broken 
one  commandment  you  are  guilty  in  the  sight  of 
God.  If  I  was  hanging  from  yonder  ceiling  by  a 
chain  of  one  hundred  links  and  one  link  should 
break,  down  I  would  come.  The  links  do  not  all 
need  to  break  to  let  me  fall. 

When  God  put  man  in  Eden  he  bound  him  to  the 
throne  of  heaven  by  a  golden  chain.  When  Adam 
fell  he  broke  that  golden  chain.  Man  is  lost.  He 
is  out  of  communion  with  God.  Sorne  men  say, 
"Well,  do  you  pretend  to  say  I  am  as  bad  as  other 
people?"  I  don't  know  but  what  you  are  worse. 
The  moralist  straightens  up  and  says,  "I  am  not  as 
bad  as  that  drunkard.  Do  you  call  me  as  bad  as 
that  thief,  that  adulterer,  and  that  libertine?  Do 
you  call  me  as  bad  as  that  forger,  that  defaulter?" 
I  don't  know  but  what  you  are  worse;  really,  I 
can't  tell.  God  judges  us  according  to  the  light  we 
have  had.  Suppose  I  have  had  nothing  but  light 
from  earliest  childhood  up ;  that  I  have  been  nursed 
in  a  religious  family;  I  have  heard  all  about  God, 
but  I  turn  my  back  upon  all  His  teachings,  and  I 
praise  myself  because  I  think  I  am  better  than  other 


NO  DIFFERENCE.  469 

people,  and  call  myself  a  moralist.  Hert  is  a  young 
man  who  has  a  cursing  father  and  a  cursing  mother, 
and  has  heard  nothing  but  cursings  and  blasphemies. 
He  has  had  no  light.  It  may  be  I  am  w  se  in  the 
sight  of  God  than  that  man.  The  idea  f  a  man 
drawing  the  filthy  rags  of  self-righteousness  about 
him  and  thinking  he  is  better  than  9ther  people! 
The  fact  is,  there  is  not  any  thing  thai  grows  on 
this  Adam  tree  that  is  good.  It  is  all  btd.  I  will 
admit  that  some  men  have  more  fruit  than  others. 
Suppose  you  have  two  trees,  both  miserable,  worth- 
less, good  for  nothing.  One  has  five  hundred  apples 
and  the  other  only  five.  One  has  more  fruit,  but 
both  bad.  So  one  may  be  more  fruitful  in  bringing 
forth  sin,  but  both  bad. 

A  friend  of  mine  went  into  a  jail  some  time  ago 
and  fell  to  talking  with  the  prisoners.  He  began  to 
talk  with  one  who  was  a  murderer,  and  he  tried  to 
rouse  the  man  up  to  talk  about  his  awful  guilt,  but 
the  man  thought  he  was  not  so  very  bad  after  all. 
"Why,"  said  he,  "you  talk  as  if  I  was  the  worst 
man  in  the  world.  There  is  a  man  down  in  the 
other  cell  who  has  killed  six  men ;  I  have  only  killed 
one."  There  he  was  trying  to  justify  himself. 
That  is  the  cry  all  over  the  world  at  the  present 
time.  Men  are  measuring  themselves  by  men,  and 
they  think  that  because  they  have  not  committed  as 
many  sins  as  other  people  they  are  not  so  bad.  If 
they  could  just  get  a  glimpse  of  their  own  hearts, 
they  would  see  that  they  were  black  and  vile. 

Now,  God  never  gave  the  law  to  save  any  man. 
The  law  was  given  that  every  man's  mouth  might 
be  stopped,  and  the  whole  world  become  guilty 
before  God.     When  a  man  gets  a  good  look  at  him- 


470  NO  DIFFERENCE. 

self  in  God's  law,  he  does  not  try  to  make  out  that 
he  is  better  than  other  people ;  he  gets  down  in  the 
dust,  and  he  cries,  "God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sin- 
ner. ' ' 

Suppose  an  artist  should  come  here  to  Cleveland 
and  advertise  that  he  could  photograph  men's  hearts 
— that  he  could  get  a  correct  likeness  of  what  is  in 
a  man's  heart— do  you  think  he  would  take  a  single 
likeness  in  all  Cleveland?  People  arrange  their 
toilets,  go  to  the  artists  and  get  their  photographs 
taken ;  and  if  the  artist  flatters  them  a  little  and 
makes  them  look  a  little  better  than  they  really  do 
look,  they  say,  "Yes,  that  is  a  very  good  likeness," 
and  they  send  it  to  their  friends  and  pass  it  around 
by  post.  I  got  one  to-night  from  a  friend,  and  it 
was  a  very  fine  one. 

But  suppose  you  could  get  a  photograph  of  your 
heart.  Do  you  think  you  would  send  that  around? 
There  is  not  a  man  in  all  Cleveland  who  would  have 
a  photograph  of  his  heart  taken.  You  know  it  very 
well.  There  is  not  any  thing  that  will  close  a  man's 
mouth  about  his  being  so  pure,  and  good,  and 
moral,  as  to  get  a  look  at  himself  in  God's  looking- 
glass.  The  law  is  God's  looking-glass  dropped  down 
into  the  world  that  man  may  see  himself  as  God  sees 
him.  Or,  in  other  words,  the  law  is  made  that  man 
may  see  how  he  has  fallen  short  of  God's  standard. 

Just  a  little  while  before  the  Chicago  fire,  I  said 
to  my  family  at  breakfast  that  I  would  come  home 
after  dinner  and  take  them  out  riding.  -  My  little 
boy  jumped  up  and  said,  "Papa,  will  you  take  us  up 
to  Lincoln  Park  to  see  the  bears?"  "Yes,  take  you 
up  to  Lincoln  Park  to  see  the  bears."  You  know 
that  boys  like  to  see  animals.       I  hadn't  more  than 


NO  DIFFERENCE.  471 

gone  off  before  he  began  to  tease  his  mother  to  get 
him  ready.  She  washed  him,  put  a  white  dress  on 
him,  got  him  all  ready.  Then  he  wanted  to  go  out- 
doors. When  he  was  a  little  fellow  he  had  a  strange 
passion  for  eating  dirt,  and  when  I  drove  up,  his 
face  was  all  covered  with  dirt  and  his  dress  was 
dirty.  He  came  running  up  to  me  and  wanted  me 
to  take  him  up  in  the  carriage  to  Lincoln  Park. 
Said  I,  "Willie,  I  can't  take  you  in  that  state;  I 
have  got  to  wash  you. "  "No,  I'se  clean!"  "No, 
you  are  not.  You  are  dirty.  I  shall  have  to  wash 
you  before  I  can  take  you  outriding."  "O,  I'se 
clean,  I'se  clean!  Mamma  washed  me."  "No,"  I 
said,  "you  are  not. "  The  little  fellow  began  to  cry, 
and  I  thought  the  quickest  way  to  stop  him  was  to 
show  him  himself.  So  I  got  out  of  the  carriage, 
and  took  him  into  the  house,  and  showed  him  his 
face  in  the  looking-glass.  -That  stopped  his  mouth. 
He  never  said  his  face  was  clean  after  he  saw  himself 
But  I  didn't  take  the  looking-glass  to  wash  him 
with.  I  took  him  away  to  the  water.  The  law  is 
only  given  to  show  man  his  needs;  to  show  man 
his  guilt — not  to  save  him.  The  law  is  a  school- 
master to  bring  him  to  Christ.  But  the  law  never 
saved  a  man,  never  will,  and  never  can.  The  law 
condemns  me,  shows  me  my  guilt.  But  Christ 
comes  and  saves  me  from  the  curse  of  the  law. 
Paul  says,  in  this  very  chapter,  that  the  law  was  given 
that  every  mouth  might  be  stopped ;  and  when  men 
will  get  done  measuring  themselves  by  their  neigh- 
bors, by  their  friends,  and  will  begin  to  measure 
themselves  by  God's  law,  they  will  see  just  where 
they  are.     They  will  see  how  they  have  sinned  and 


472  NO  DIFFERENCE. 

come  short  of  the  glory  of  God ;  and  they  will  not 
see  it  before. 

Why,  you  may  go  to  yonder  prison  at  Columbus, 
and  you  will  find  there,  probably,  a  thousand  prison- 
ers, more  or  less,  some  of  them  are  there  for  forg- 
ery, some  for  rape,  some  for  theft,  some  for  man- 
slaughter, some  for  murder;  and  you  will  find,  per- 
haps, a  hundred  different  kinds  of  prisoners.  But 
the  law  makes  no  difference.  They  have  all  sinned, 
and  come  short  of  the  requirements  of  the  law  of 
the  state.  They  have  broken  the  law.  They  have 
transgressed  and  when  they  came  to  that  prison 
they  all  went  in  alike.  Their  hair  was  cut  short 
and  they  put  on  the  garb  of  the  prison  and  they  are 
there.  "There  is  no  difference. "  The  law  of  this 
state  recognizes  "no  difference."  They  are  crim- 
inals.    They  are  guilty. 

Not  long  ago  one  of  these  whiskey  men  was  taken 
up  by  the  law — a  man  estimated  to  be  worth  a  mil- 
lion dollars — and  he  was  sent  to  prison,  and  when 
he  got  to  the  prison  door  and  wanted  to  take  his 
trunk  in,  they  said,  "No,  you  can't  take  that." 
"Well,"  he  said,  "I  am  afraid  I  can't  get  on  with 
the  prison  fare,  and  I  have  brought  a  few  things 
for  my  own  comfort."  "No,"  they  said,  "there  is 
no  difference  here.  The  law  recognizes  no  differ- 
ence. '  * 

You  may  divide  society  into  a  hundred  classes. 
There  are  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  learned  and 
the  unlearned,  men  of  culture,  men  of  science.  But 
the  law  of  God  recognizes  no  difference.  If  a  man 
has  broken  the  law  of  God,  I  tell  you,  my  friends, 
there  is  no  difference ;  and  the  quicker  you  can  find 
it  out  the  better.       A  man  up  here  on  this  avenue, 


NO  DIFFERENCE.  473 

worth  his  millions,  who  dies  without  Christ,  without 
God  and  without  hope,  goes  down  to  his  grave  like 
a  beggar,  and  there  will  be  no  difference  one  minute 
after  his  death ;  and  ten  days  after  he  is  in  his  grave 
the  worms  will  feed  upon  his  body  as  they  would 
upon  a  beggar.  We  make  a  great  difference,  but 
God  does  not  look  at  things  as  we  do. 

Now,  the  object  of  this  discourse  is  to  get  you 
people  to-night  to  give  up  measuring  yourselves  by 
other  people.  If  you  want  to  get  a  correct  meas- 
urement, measure  yourself  by  the  law  of  God,  and 
see  where  you  are. 

A  few  years  ago,  when  the  city  of  Chicago  was 
incorporated  as  a  city,  they  gave  the  Mayor  power 
to  appoint  policemen.  When  the  city  was  small, 
the  plan  worked  very  well,  but  when  it  got  to  be 
large,  it  was  too  much  power  in  one  man's  hands, 
and  he  would  use  that  power  to  secure  his  re-elec- 
tion, and  the  thing  worked  disastrously  for  the  city 
government.  Some  citizens  went  to  Springfield  to 
our  legislature,  and  got  through  a  Police  bill  that 
took  the  power  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Mayor,  and 
placed  it  in  the  hands  of  a  Board  of  Police  Commis- 
sioners. The  law  provided  that  no  man  should  be 
a  policeman  unless  he  was  of  a  certain  height.  I 
remember  there  was  a  great  rush  to  headquarters 
to  get  appointments  as  policemen.  Men  were  going 
all  over  the  city  getting  recommendations,  because 
it  was  said  no  man  would  get  an  appointment  that 
hadn't  a  good  character.  Now,  for  my  illustration. 
Suppose  that  Mr.  Doane  and  myself  want  to  get  in 
as  policemen ;  we  are  running  around  getting  letters 
from  leading  men  of  Chicago.  We  meet  at  the  door 
at  the  appointed  time,   and  I  say,  "Mr.   Doane,   I 


474  NO  DIFFERENCE. 

think  I  have  as  good  a  chance  as  any  man  in  this 
crowd.  I  have  letters  from  United  States  senators, 
representative  in  Congress,  the  mayor  of  the  city 
and  judges  of  the  supreme  court."  "Well,"  says 
Mr.  Doane,  "I  have  letters  from  the  same  ones,  and 
I  am  sure  they  do  not  speak  any  more  highly  of  you 
than  they  do  of  me. ' '  I  step  up  to  the  Commissioner 
and  lay  down  my  letters,  and  the  Commissioner  says 
to  me,  "Mr.  Moody,  those  letters  may  be  all  right, 
but  before  we  read  those  letters,  we  will  measure 
you.  The  law  says  you  must  be  of  a  certain  height. ' ' 
I  stand  up  and  am  measured,  but  I  don't  come 
within  the  requirement  of  the  law.  The  law  says  I 
must  be  five  feet  and  six  inches — for  illustration  call 
it  that — and  I  am  only  five  feet.  I  do  not  come 
but  within  a  half  a  foot  of  it,  and  he  hands  the  letters 
back  to  me  and  says,  "Your  letters  may  be  all 
right,  Mr.  Moody,  but  you  have  come  short  of  the 
standard ;  the  law  says  you  shall  be  five  feet  and  six 
inches. ' '  Mr.  Doane  looks  down  upon  me  and  he 
says,  "Mr.  Moody,  I  am  a  little  taller  than  you  are." 
I  say,  "Mr.  Doane,  don't  say  anything,  wait  until 
you  are  measured."  Mr.  Doane  steps  up,  and  he  is 
five  feet  five  inches  and  nine-tenths  of  an  inch. 
He  has  come  short  only  one-tenth  of  an  inch. 
There  is  no  difference. 

The  way  to  measure  yourself  is  by  God's  require- 
ments. Is  there  a  man  here  who  is  willing  to  be 
measured  to-night?  Are  you  willing  to  be  measured 
by  the  law  of  God,  and  not  by  your  neighbors  and 
by  your  friends?  That  is  working  the  mischief. 
People  are  all  the  time  measuring  themselves  by 
their  neighbors  and  friends.  Be  measured  by  the 
law  of  God,  and  see  where  you  are.     I  do  not  know 


NO  DIFFERENCE.  475 

of  anything  that  will  stop  aman's  mouth  quicker. 
He  will  not  be  talking  about  being  better  than  his 
neighbors  if  he  measures  himself  by  God's  law. 
Have  you  kept  it?     That  is  the  question. 

I  can  imagine  Noah  leaving  the  ark  and  going  out 
to  preach  from  this  text:  "There  is  no  difference. 
Every  man  that  does  not  get  into  the  ark  shall  per- 
ish."  Those  antedeluvians  would  have  laughed  at 
him;  they  would  have  said,  " Noah  you  had  better 
get  back  into  the  ark  and  not  talk  that  stuff  to  us." 
"There  is  no  difference.  All  are  going  to  perish 
alike,"  says  Noah.  "Every  man  that  does  not  get 
into  the  ark  will  perish. "  They  would  have  caviled 
at  him  and  laughed  at  him.  I  doubt  whether  or  not 
they  would  not  have  stoned  him  to  death.  But  did 
that  change  the  fact?  The  flood  came  and  took  them 
all  away — kings,  governors,  judges,  rulers,  drunk- 
ards, harlots,  thieves  all  swept  away  alike.  "There 
is  no  difference,  for  all  have  sinned  and  come  short 
of  the  glory  of  God. "  I  can  imagine  Abraham  leav- 
ing his  tent  and  Lot  going  down  into  Sodom  a  few 
days  before  Sodom  was  destroyed,  and  preaching 
from  the  text.  ' '  There  is  no  difference,  God  is  going 
to  rise  in  judgment  upon  these  cities  of  the  plain. 
Every  man  that  does  not  escape  from  this  city  God 
will  destroy.  When  he  comes  to  deal  in  judgment 
there  will  be  no  difference."  Those  Sodomites 
would  have  laughed  at  him.  They  would  have  told 
him  he  had  better  go  back  to  his  tent  and  his  altar. 
But  the  fire  came  and  they  were  all  destroyed  alike. 
The  king  of  Sodom,  princes,  governors,  rulers,  all 
perished  alike. 

I   can   imagine  Christ  preaching  to  those  men  in 
Jerusalem.     "God  is  going  to  judge  Jerusalem,  and 


476  NO  DIFFERENCE. 

when  God  comes  in  judgment  there  will  be  no  differ- 
ence." And  when  God  judged  Jerusalem  eleven 
hundred  thousand  perished.  There  was  no  differ- 
ence.    All  perished  alike. 

It  seems  to  me  I  got  a  glimpse  in  the  Chicago  fire 
of  what  the  Judgment  will  be,  when  I  saw  that  fire 
rolling  down  the  streets  of  Chicago,  twenty  and 
thirty  feet  high,  consuming  man  and  everj^thing  in 
its  march  that  did  not  flee.  I  saw  there  the  million- 
aire and  the  beggar  fleeing  alike.  There  was  no 
difference.  That  night  our  great  men,  learned  men, 
wise  men,  all  fled  alike.  There  was  no  difference. 
And  when  God  comes  to  judge  the  world,  there  will 
be  no  difference.  Because  you  are  in  a  higher  posi- 
tion, or  because  you  have  a  little  wealth,  because 
you  have  a  title  to  your  name  or  some  position  in 
this  world,  if  you  are  out  of  Christ — out  of  the  arl:, 
it  will  make  no  difference.  God  has  provided  an 
ark  of  refuge.  God  says,  "Come  in."  God  has 
provided  salvation.  "The  grace  of  God  hath 
appeared  bringing  salvation  to  all  men. ' '  You  spurn 
the  offer  of  mercy.  You  just  turn  aside  from  this 
gift.  Many  a  man  is  kicking  this  unspeakable  gift 
around  as  he  would  a  foot-ball — as  if  it  was  not 
worth  picking  up.  Whose  fault  is  it?  God  has  pro- 
vided salvation  for  all.  M  any  a  man  turns  his  head 
with  a  scornful  look  and  says:  "I  don't  want  it." 
Ah,  my  friends,  if  you  refuse  this  gift  you  must 
perish.  There  will  be  no  difference  when  God  comes 
in  judgment. 

Wherever  man  had  been  tried  without  God  he 
has  been  a  failure.  God  put  Adam  in  Eden,  sur- 
rounded him  with  everything  that  heart  could  de- 
sire, and  Satan  walked  in  and  stripped  him  of  every- 


Q  a 

a  a 

X  1 

o  " 

25  S 


NO  DIFFERENCE.  479 

thing  he  had.  I  don't  believe  vSatan  was  in  the 
garden  thirty  minutes  before  he  had  everything 
that  Adam  had.  He  was  a  failure.  Then  God 
took  man  and  made  a  covenant  with  him.  He  says 
to  Abraham,  "I  will  multiply  thy  seed  as  the  stars 
of  heaven,  and  as  the  sand  which  is  upon  the  sea 
shore."  After  that  covenant  man  was  a  failure. 
He  turned  away  from  God.  What  a  stupendous 
failure  man  was  under  the  Judges !  Then  we  find 
God  bringing  them  to  Sinai  and  giving  them  the 
law.  Who  would  have  thought  they  were  not  going 
to  keep  it !  Moses  went  up  into  the  mountain  to 
have  an  interview  with  God  and  took  Joshua  with 
him,  and  was  gone  but  forty  days.  Those  men 
gathered  around  Aaron  and  said,  "Where  is 
Moses?  We  do  not  know  anything  about  him. 
Make  us  a  god  to  worship. "  They  brought  gold  to 
him  and  he  made  them  a  golden  calf.  These  very 
men  that  were  going  to  keep  the  law,  inside  of 
thirty  days  were  bowing  down  and  worshiping  a 
golden  calf,  and  their  children  have  been  at  it  ever 
since.  More  people  to-day  bow  down  to  the  golden 
calf  than  to  the  God  of  heaven.  Man  away  from 
God  is  a  stupendous  failure.  Man  was  a  failure  un- 
der the  prophets.  Now,  we  have  been  two  thousand 
years  under  grace,  which  means  undeserved  mercy; 
and  what  is  man  under  grace  but  a  failure  without 
God?  Pick  tip  5'our  daily  papers  and  look  at  j'our 
daily  records.  Look  at  that  transaction  in  Cincin- 
nati within  forty-eight  hours!  Look  at  what  is 
occurring  in  all  the  towns,  cities,  and  villages! 
Man  away  from  God  is  a  failure.  When  will  men 
learn  the  lesson? 

But  I  can  imagine  some  of  you  sav,  "Is  there  no 
27 


480  NO  DIFFERENCE. 

star  to  light  this  darkness?  Are  we  to  be  left  under 
this  law?"  Right  here  conies  this  gospel.  Jesus 
came  to  redeem  us  from  the  law.  Christ  was  the 
end  of  the  law  for  righteousness'  sake.  He  has 
atoned  for  sin.  He  has  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself 
put  away  sin.  The  law  cannot  touch  me.  Blessed 
truth.  The  law  condemns  me,  but  Christ  saves  me. 
The  law  casts  me  down,  but  Christ  lifts  me  up.  If 
you  can  afford  to  turn  away  from  such  a  Savior  and 
go  on  in  your  sins  and  take  the  consequences,  you 
can  take  a  greater  responsibility  upon  yourself  than 
I  would  dare  to  do. 

Perhaps  I  can  illustrate  this  by  an  incident  that 
occurred  during  our  war.  When  the  war  broke  out 
there  was  a  young  man  in  New  England  who  was 
engaged  to  be  married  to  a  young  lady.  He  enlisted 
for  three  years.  Letters  passed  between  them.  He 
wrote  to  her  after  every  battle.  The  three  years 
were  nearly  up.  She  was  counting  the  days  before  he 
would  return.  The  battle  of  the  Wilderness  came 
on.  She  got  no  letter  for  some  time.  Day  after 
day  she  went  to  the  little  village  postoffice,  but  got 
no  letter ;  but  at  last  one  came  in  a  strange  hand- 
writing, written  by  one  of  his  comrades.  She  tore 
it  open.  It  stated  that  he  had  lost  both  of  his  arms 
in  that  battle,  and  how  he  loved  her,  but  as  he 
would  be  dependent  upon  the  charities  of  a  cold 
world  for  his  support,  and  as  she  was  worthy  of  a 
noble  husband  he  released  her  from  the.  engagement 
and  she  was  at  liberty  to  inarry  whom  she  pleased. 
She  never  answered  that  letter.  The  next  train 
that  left  that  little  village  for  the  South  she  was  on. 
She  went  to  the  army,  and  her  tears  and  entreaties 
took  her  beyond  the  lines,  and  she  got  down  to  the 


NO  DIFFERENCE.  481 

hospital  in  the  Wilderness.  She  got  the  number  of 
the  ward  or  the  cot  he  was  in.  She  went  down  that 
long-  line  of  cots  and  at  last  her  eye  fixed  upon  that 
number.  She  rushed  to  that  cot,  and  bent  over  and 
kissed  that  armless  man,  and  she  said,  "I  will  never 
give  you  up.  These  hands  will  toil  for  you.  I  am 
able  to  support  you  and  care  for  you.  "  That  young 
man  could  have  spurned  her  offer  and  turned  her 
away  and  said,  "No,  I  will  not  carry  out  the  engage- 
ment. ' '  He  was  a  free  agent.  But  she  came  to 
him  in  his  helpless  condition,  and  now  they  are 
living  a  happy  life.  She  has  been  true  to  her  word. 
She  takes  care  of  that  man. 

Ah,  my  friends,  it  is  a  poor  illustration  of  what 
Jesus  Christ  will  do  for  every  sinner  in  this  hall  to- 
night. We  are  worse  than  armless.  We  are  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins.  Christ  came  from  the  throne 
of  heaven  and  redeemed  us  from  the  law.  "He 
bore  our  sins  for  us  in  his  own- body  on  the  tree.' 
"He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  bruised 
for  our  iniquity,  and  by  His  stripes  we  are  healed. ' ' 
He  took  the  penalty  of  the  law  into  His  own  bosom. 
He  tasted  death  for  every  man.  Christ  was  the  end 
of  the  law  by  giving  up  His  own  life.  Sinner,  will 
you  have  Him  as  your  Savior?  Will  you  let  Him 
redeem  you  from  the  curse  of  the  law  to-night? 
Will  you  to-night  pass  from  death  unto  life?  You 
can,  if  you  will,  have  Him.  "He  that  hath  the  Son 
hath  life,  and  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  hath  not 
life."  And  when  you  and  I  stand  before  God,  the 
question  will  be:  "What  did  you  do  with  My  Son? 
I  offered  you  eternal  life  through  Him.  What  did 
you  do  with  Him?" 


CHAPTER   XXXIII. 


GRACE 


My  subject  is  that  we  have  just  been  singing 
about,  "Grace."  It  is  one  of  those  Bible  words  we 
hear  so  often  and  know  so  Httle  about.  You  hear  a 
great  many  people  talking  about  their  not  being 
worthy  to  come  to  Christ;  they  would  like  to  come, 
but  they  are  not  worthy,  they  are  not  good  enough. 

That  is  a  sign  they  know  nothing  about  grace  at 
all.  Grace  means  unmerited  mercy,  undeserved 
favor.  Just  because  man  don't  deserve  it,  God  deals 
in  grace  with  him.  And  when  we  see  it  in  that 
light  we  will  get  done  trying  to  establish  our  own 
righteousness  and  our  own  good  deeds,  and  take 
Christ  as  God  would  have  us. 

Now  there  is  not  any  part  of  the  Bible  in  which 
you  will  not  find  God  shining  out  in  grace ;  or,  in 
other  words,  He  wants  to  deal  with  all  men  in  grace. 
Pie  don't  delight  in  judgment.  He  delights  in 
mercy.  That  is  one  of  his  attributes.  He  is  anxious 
to  deal  in  mercy  with  every  man,  woman  and  child 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  the  trouble  is,  men 
are  running  away  from  the  God  of  grace,  they  don't 
want  grace,  won't  have  it,  won't  take  it  as  a  gift. 

In  proof  of  this  you  will  find  that  away  back  in 
Eden,  the  first  thing  after  the  fall  of  man,  God  deal- 
ing in  grace  with  Adam.     You  find,  as  you  read  the 

482 


GRACE.  483 

account  of  his  fall,  of  his  transgression,  that  there 
is  not  any  sign  at  all  of  repentance.  When  God 
came  to  deal  with  Adam  there  is  not  any  sign  of 
Adam  asking  for  pardon.  If  he  asked  for  pardon  it 
has  not  been  put  on  record.  There  is  no  confes- 
sion ;  there  is  no  contrition ;  there  is  no  prayer  for 
mercy;  and  yet  we  find  the  God  of  all  grace  dealing 
with  Adam  there  in  Eden  in  love — in  grace.  He 
had  mercy  upon  him.  If  He  had  dealt  in  judgment 
without  grace,  He  would  have  hurled  him  out  of 
Eden,  or  Pie  would  have  let  Eden  be  his  resting 
place.  He  would  have  perished  right  there  in  Eden. 
But  we  find  God  dealt  in  grace  with  Adam.  He 
pitied  him,  and  He  had  mercy  upon  him. 

You  will  find  that,  all  through  the  Old  Testament, 
grace  here  and  there  shines  out;  but  we  don't  see  it 
in  its  fulness  until  Christ  came.  He  was  the  em- 
bodiment of  grace  and  truth. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  John's  gospel  and  the  four- 
teenth verse  it  says,  "And  the  Word  was  made  flesh, 
and  dwelt  among  us  (and  we  beheld  His  glory,  the 
glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father),  full  of 
grace  and  truth.  For  the  law  was  given  by  Moses, 
but  grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus  Christ." 

Again,  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Romans  and  the 
fifteenth  verse,  we  read,  "But  not  as  of  the  offense, 
so  also  is  the  free  gift."  Emphasize  that  little  word 
free.  It  is  ^free  gift.  "For  if  through  the  offence 
of  one  many  be  dead,  much  more  the  grace  of  God, 
and  the  gift  by  grace,  which  is  by  one  man,  Jesus 
Christ,  hath  abounded  unto  many." 

Now,  grace  came  by  Jesus  Christ  and  hath 
abounded  unto  many.  As  we  lost  life  in  the  first 
Adam,  we   get  life  in  the  second  Adam.     We  lost 


484  GRACE. 

everything,  you  might  say,  in  the  first  Adam,  but 
we  get  it  all  back,  and  more,  too,  in  the  second 
Adam.  He  came  full  of  grace  to  have  mercy  on 
man  and  to  save.  We  cannot  get  the  grace  of  God 
except  through  His  Son.  That  is  the  channel  that 
the  gifts  of  God  flow  through.  If  a  man  thinks  he' 
is  going  to  get  by  Christ  and  going  right  to  the 
Father  and  have  God  deal  in  mercy  with  him  he  is 
deceiving  himself.  Christ  is  the  anointed  one,  the 
sent  one.  God  sent  Him  to  deal  in  grace  with  men ; 
and  if  you  want  the  God  of  all  grace  to  meet  you 
and  bless  you,  you  must  meet  Him  at  the  foot  of  the 
cross;  you  must  meet  Him  in  Christ. 

When  the  nations  around  Egypt  went  down  into 
Egypt  to  get  corn,  the  king  of  Egypt  sent  them  to 
Joseph.  He  put  every  thing  in  Joseph's  hands.  So 
the  King  of  heaven  has  put  every  thing  in  Christ's 
hands ;  and  if  you  want  mercy  you  must  go  to  Christ, 
because  He  delights  in  mercy ;  and  there  is  not  a 
man  or  woman  on  the  face  of  the  earth  who  really 
want  mercy  that  cannot  find  it  in  Him.  He  is  the 
God  of  all  grace ;  that  is  what  Peter  says.  Men  talk 
about  grace,  but  the  fact  is  we  don't  know  much 
about  grace.  If  I  went  to  a  bank  and  had  a  pretty 
good  reputation  for  having  money,  if  I  was  worth 
consderable,  and  I  could  get  another  mart  that  was 
worth  a  little  more  to  endorse  my  note,  I  might  get, 
perhaps,  five  hundred  dollars  for  a  little  while,  but 
I  would  have  to  give  a  note,  and  perhaps  have  to 
secure  that  note,  and  it  would  read,  "Thirty  days 
after  date,  or  sixty  days  after  date,  I  promise  to 
pay."  Then  they  give  what  they  call  three  days 
grace,  and  they  make  you  pay  interest  for  those 
three  days;  and  if  you  are  short  a  dollar  they  will 


GRACE.  485 

sell  every  thing  you  have  to  get  that  from  you. 
Men  call  that  grace.  They  don't  know  anything 
about  grace  at  all.  If  they  had  grace  they  would 
give  you  not  only  the  principal,  but  the  interest  and 
all.  That  is  what  grace  is.  I  think  the  reason  men 
know  so  little  about  grace  is  that  they  are  measur- 
ing God  by  their  own  rule.  Now,  we  love  a  man  as 
long  as  he  is  worthy  of  our  love.  When  he  is  not 
we  cast  him  off.  Not  so  with  the  God  of  all  grace. 
Nothing  will  give  him  greater  pleasure  than  to  deal 
in  mercy — to  deal  in  grace. 

Paul  is  called  the  apostle  of  grace.  If  you  look  at 
his  fourteen  epistles  carefully,  you  will  find  that 
every  one  of  them  winds  up  with  a  prayer  for  grace. 

Now,  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  a  scene  that 
occurred  in  the  life  of  Christ.  See  how  grace  just 
flowed  out.  There  was  a  woman  came  to  him  who 
had  a  daughter  who  was  greviously  tormented  at 
home.  Perhaps  some  of  you  have  children  that  are 
possessed  of  bad  spirits,  possessed  of  a  demon,  chil- 
dren that  are  just  breaking  your  hearts  and  bringing 
ruin  upon  your  home  and  bitterness  into  your  life. 
Well,  this  woman  had  a  child  that  was  grievously 
tormented,  and  she  started  off  to  Christ.  He  v.-as 
coming  to  the  coast  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  she  came 
out  to  that  coast.  She  was  not  an  Israelite.  He 
had  come  for  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel. 

God  sent  him  first  to  the  Jews.  But  grace  would 
flow  out.  The  apostles  tried  to  keep  it  back,  but  it 
would  flow  out.  He  came  in  the  borders  of  that 
country,  and  this  woman  had  faith,  and  she  came 
and  cried  to  the  Lord  to  help  her,  and  she  kept  cry- 
ing. The  Lord  knew  all  about  her,  but  He  wanted 
to  teach   those  Jews  around   Him  a    lesson.       He 


486  GRACE. 

wanted  to  teach  them  the  lesson  of  grace.  The 
most  difficult  thing  Christ  had  to  do  when  He  was 
down  here  was  to  teach  those  Jews  grace.  The  men 
that  were  around  Him,  even  those  twelve  apostles, 
could  not  understand  about  this  grace.  They  were 
all  the  time  going  around  establishing  their  own 
righteousness.  "We  are  of  the  seed  of  Jacob;  we 
are  the  descendants  of  Moses  and  Abraham.  "  They 
thought  they  were  better  than  the  nations  around 
them.  They  called  the  nations  around  them  Gentile 
dogs,  but  they  were  the  seed  of  Abraham.  He  was 
trying  to  teach  them  grace.  They  could  not  under- 
stand it.  This  woman  comes  to  the  coast  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon  and  begins  to  cry  for  help.  The  disciples 
tried  to  send  her  away.  She  was  terribly  in  earn- 
est, and  she  kept  praying  right  there  in  the  streets. 
She  was  hungering  for  something.  I  hope  some,  one 
has  come  up  to  this  Tabernacle  to- day  hungering 
for  something.  You  will  get  it  if  you  are  hunger- 
ing and  thirsting  for  it.  She  was  terribly  in  earn- 
est. She  wanted  the  Lord  to  bless  her.  She  put 
herself  right  in  the  place  of  that  child.  At  last  one 
of  the  twelve — perhaps  it  was  Peter;  he  was  gener- 
ally the  spokesman  of  the  twelve — says:  "Lord, 
send  her  away;  she  is  bothering  us."  Ah!  Peter 
did  not  know  the  heart  of  the  Savior.  He  had  a 
blessing  in  His  heart  for  that  woman.  But  the 
woman  kept  on  crying.  At  last  He  thought  He  would 
try  her,  and  He  says:  "It  is  not  meet  to  take  the 
children's  bread  and  cast  it  to  the  dogs."  Now,  if 
she  had  been  like  some  women  in  Cleveland  she 
would  have  probably  said,  "What!  you  call  me  a  dog, 
do  you?  I  won't  take  anything  from  you.  I  know 
lots  of  women  who  are  meaner  than  I  am ;  and  worse 


GRACE.  487 

than  T  am.  There's  a  woman  lives  down  on  the 
same  street  I  live,  and  she  belongs  to  the  seed  of 
Abraham,  and  she  is  a  good  deal  meaner  than  I 
am."  How  mad  she  would  have  got!  But  see 
what  she  did:  "Yes,  Lord;  but  the  dogs  eat  of  the 
crumbs  that  fall  from  his  Master's  table."  Ah,  it 
pleased  the  Master  wonderfully.  He  did  not  send 
her  away.  "Oh,  woman,  great  is  thy  faith.  Be  it 
unto  thee  as  thou  wilt. "  That  is  a  blank  check  for 
her  to  fill  out.  The  whole  treasury  of  heaven  was 
open  to  her,  and  she  could  walk  in  and  take  what 
she  wanted.  She  did  not  come  with  any  work.  She 
did  not  come  with  any  tears.  She  just  came  for 
mercy.  And  that  beautiful  prayer — some  people 
tell  us  thoy  can't  pray;  but  this  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  prayers  on  record.  "Lord," — she  called 
hiin  Lord ;  He  was  divine ;  He  was  not  mere  man — 
"Lord,  help  me."  Three  golden  links  bound  her 
right  to  the  God  of  all  grace.  You  tell  me  you  can't 
pray!  ^v'hy,  that  little  child  there  can  make  that 
prayer,  "Lord,  help  me. "  That  is  all  she  said,  and 
that  is  all  she  wanted.  She  wanted  help.  She  had 
come  for  that,  and  she  got  it.  If  you  come  to-day 
to  meet  the  God  of  all  grace  and  want  help,  lie  is 
ready  to  help  you.  He  delights  to  help.  He  likes 
to  give  gifts  to  the  sons  of  men.  He  says,  "It  is 
more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.  "  He  has  gifts, 
and  He  wants  to  give  every  one  of  us  some  to-day, 
if  we  will  receive  them.  He  is  full  of  grace.  ,It 
don't  grieve  Him  to  have  us  come  too  often.  It 
don't  grieve  Him  to  have  us  ask  too  great  things. 
The  only  way  we  can  displease  God  is  not  to  come 
often  enough ;  and  when  we  do  come  not  to  ask  for 
enough.     This  woman  came  for  a  blessing,  and  she 


488  GRACE. 

got  it.     She  went  right  home  and  found  that  child 
perfectly  whole. 

In  the  seventh  chapter  of  Luke  you  will  find  an- 
other case  where  grace  seems  to  come  out.  A  cer- 
tain centurion's  servant  was  sick,  and  when  the  cen- 
turion heard  of  Jesus,  he  sent  the  elders  of  the  Jews 
to  ask  Him  to  come  and  heal  his  servant.  And  the 
Jews  came  and  said,  "Lord,  there  is  a  centurion 
whose  servant  is  very  ill,  and  he  wants  to  have  you 
come  and  heal  him ;  and  we  want  to  have  you  come 
at  once,  because  he  is  worthy?"  Nov/,  mark  this: 
The  Jews  put  it  on  the  ground  of  his  worthiness. 
What  had  he  done  to  make  him  worthy?  Why,  he 
had  built  a  synagogue.  They  thought  Christ  ought 
to  stop  His  work  and  turn  aside  at  once  and  go  and 
heal  that  man's  servant,  because  he  was  worthy. 
They  put  it  on  the  ground  of  works — because  he 
had  built  a  synagogue.  Do  you  know,  I  believe 
that  is  the  mischief  with  many  of  our  churches.  1 
believe  that  is  the  trouble  with  a  good  many  people. 
They  think  God  is  under  obligations  to  them.  They 
think  God  owes  them  something.  They  think  be- 
cause they  have  built  a  synagogue,  or  helped  build 
some  church,  or  endowed  some  college,  that  God 
ought  to  deal  in  grace  with  them  and  ought  to  have 
mercy  upon  them.  Now,  it  is  "to  him  that  worketh 
not,  but  believeth. "  Now,  Christ  starts  to  go  to 
that  centurion's  house  as  if  He  was  going  to  deal 
with  him  in  that  way — as  if  He  was  going  to  put  it 
on  the  ground  of  works.  But  before  He  gets  to  his 
house,  the  man  sent  friends  to  Him,  saying,  "Lord, 
don't  trouble  yourself;  I  am  not  worthy  that  you 
should  come  into  my  house;  neither  thought  I  my- 
self worthy  to  ask  you;  so  I  sent  these  Jews."     He 


GRACE.  489 

thought  other  people  better  than  himself.  And  I 
tell  you  when  a  man  gets  there,  he  gets  in  a  posi- 
tion where  God  can  deal  in  grace  with  him ;  he  is 
pretty  near  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  the  trouble 
with  us  Americans  is,  we  think  we  are  a  little  better 
than  other  people.  We  just  reverse  God's  order, 
and  we  think  that  other  people  are  a  little  lower 
down,  and  a  little  worse  than  we  are.  But  this  cen- 
turion thought  he  was  not  worthy  to  come  and  ask 
Christ  to  heal  his  servant.  He  sent  men  to  Him 
saying,  "Now,  you  speak  the  word,  and  it  will  be 
done."  That  pleased  Christ.  He  turned  around 
and  said  to  those  Jews,  "I  have  not  found  so  great 
faith,  no,  not  in  Israel. ' '  Here  was  a  centurion. 
He  did  not  belong  to  the  tribe  of  Abraham;  but 
among  the  Jews  He  had  not  found  a  men  that  had 
such  faith.  The  Lord  said  the  word,  and  the  serv- 
ant was  healed  right  then  and  there.  He  dealt  in 
grace  with  him.  So  when  you  and  I  are  in  such  a 
position  that  God  can  deal  in  grace  with  us,  that 
very  moment  God  deals  in  grace  with  us.  Well, 
when  is  it?  When  we  are  just  nothing,  and  are  will- 
ing to  let  God  have  mercy  upon  us,  then  He  will 
have  mercy,  not  before. 

Now,  if  you  will  turn  to  Ephesians  you  will  find 
that  He  deals  in  grace  without  works.  You  hear 
people  talk  about  trying  to  do  better.  They  think 
they  can  do  something  that  will  commend  them  to 
God,  and  that  God  will  have  mercy  upon  them. 
Instead  of  giving  up  all  works  and  letting  God  save 
them  in  His  own  way,  they  are  trying  to  work  their 
way  to  God,  and  that  is  the  reason  that  they  do  not 
come.  I  believe  to-day  that  works  is  one  of  the 
great  obstacles  in  the  way.     Men  are  trying  to  pnt 


490  GRACE. 

their  good  works  in  the  place  of  a  Savior.  In  the 
second  chapter  of  Ephesians,  second  verse,  we  read, 
"That  in  the  ages  to  come  He  might  show  the  ex- 
ceeding riches  of  His  grace  in  His  kindness  toward 
us  through  Jesns  Christ.  For  by  grace  are  you  saved 
through  faith;  and  that  not  of  yourselves;  it  is  the 
gift  of  God."  Through  grace  are  you  saved.  Now 
mark  the  words.  There  is  one  lady  that  is  not 
listening.  She  has  gone  to  sleep.  I  wish,  friends, 
if  you  sec  any  one  asleep  you  would  just  hunch 
them  with  your  elbow  and  wake  them.  You  may 
save  a  soul  in  mat  way.  "For  by  grace  are  ye 
saved  through  faith,  and  that  not  by  yourselves!  It 
is  the  gift  of  God;  not  of  works;  lest  any  man 
should  boast." 

There  will  be  one  thing  we  will  miss  when  we  get 
to  heaven,  and  that  is  boasting.  We  hear  enough 
of  that  down  here.  I  am  sure  I  don't  want  to  heu,r 
any  more.  You  cannot  go  into  any  of  these  cities 
hardly  but  what  you  find  a  lot  of  self-made  men 
boasting  of  what  they  have  done — started  poor  and 
got  rich,  and  have  done  this  and  this.  It  is,  I  I — 
boasting.  I  am  sure  there  woiild  be  a  good  deal  of 
boasting  in  heaven,  if  men  could  get  there  by  their 
works.  But  you  cannot  get  there  in  that  way.  If 
you  get  there,  you  have  to  get  there  by  the  sover- 
eign grace  of  God.  Salvation  is  a  gift.  You  must 
take  it  as  a  gift.  If  a  man  could  get  to  heaven  by 
works,  he  would  carry  boasting  into  heaven  with 
him.  Suppose  a  man  could  work  his  way  up  to 
heaven,  what  is  he  going  to  do  when  he  gets  there? 
He  could  not  join  the  chorus  around  the  throne 
singing  the  song  of  redemption.  He  would  have  to 
have  a  little  harp  and  get  off  in  a  corner  by  himself. 


GRACE.  431 

Then  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Romans  and  sixth 
verse  Paul  says,  "And  if  by  grace,  then  it  is  no 
more  of  works:  otherwise  grace  is  no  more  grace. 
But  if  it  be  of  works,  then  is  it  no  more  grace. "  He 
is  there  bringing  out  the  point.  He  says,  if  men 
are  saved  by  works  there  is  no  grace  about  it  at  all. 

Paul  says  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  Romans  and 
fifth  verse,  "It  is  to  him  that  worketh  not,  but  be- 
lie veth."  We  get  salvation  by  faith  and  not  by 
works.  Not  but  that  salvation  is  worth  working  for. 
It  is  worth  climbing  mountains,  crossing  rivers, 
swimming  streams,  crossing  deserts  and  lakes  and 
going  round  the  world  on  our  hands  and  knees  for. 
It  is  worth  it,  no  doubt  about  it,  but  you  can't  get  in 
that  way,  you  can't  get  it  by  works.  "It  is  to  him 
that  worketh  not  but  believeth. "  If  I  employed  a 
man  to  work  for  me  all  day  and  I  gave  him  two  dol- 
lars for  the  day's  work,  and  he  goes  home  and  his 
wife  says  to  him,  "John,  where  did  you  get  that  two 
dollars?"  and  he  said,  "I  worked  and  earned  it," 
there  would  be  no  grace  about  it  at  all.  But  sup- 
pose he  is  sick  and  could  not  work,  or  suppose  I  did 
not  have  any  work  for  him  and  he  was  in  distress, 
and  I  gave  him  two  dollars.  He  goes  home  and  his 
wife  says,  "John,  where  did  you  get  that  money?" 
and  he  says,  "Why,  it  is  a  gift;  Mr.  Moody  gave  it 
to  me." 

Now,  if  you  ever  get  salvation  you  have  to  take  it 
as  a  gift.  You  cannot  buy  it,  and  you  cannot  get  it 
by  your  good  works. 

Suppose  I  should  say  to  this  audience,  if  anybody 
wants  this  Bible  he  can  have  it,  and  a  man  steps  up, 
I  reach  out  the  Bible,  he  takes  it,  puts  it  under  his 
arm  and  starts  off  home.      He  gets  home,  and  his 


492  GRACE. 

wife  says,  "John,  where  did  you  get  that  Bible?" 
And  he  says,  "Why,  Mr.  Moody  gave  it  to  me." 
That  would  be  a  gift.  But  suppose  I  should  say  I 
will  give  the  Bible  to  any  one  that  wants  it,  and  a  man 
comes  up  and  says,  "Mr.  Moody,  I  don't  just  like 
your  terms.  I  don't  like  to  be  under  obligations  to 
you,"  and  that  is  about  the  way  with  sinners;  they 
do  not  like  to  be  under  obligations  to  God.  So  this 
man  says,  "I  would  like  to  take  it,  but  not  on  your 
terms.  I  will  give  you  twenty-five  cents  for  the 
Bible. ' '  I  know  it  is  worth  a  good  deal  more  than 
that;  but  suppose  I  take  the  twenty-five  cents  and 
the  man  goes  home  with  the  Bible  under  his  arm, 
and  his  wife  says,  "John,  were  did  you  get  that 
Bible?"  He  says,  "I  bought  it."  It  is  no  gift  at 
all.      He  bought  it. 

Now,  don't  you  see  that  it  is  a  gift?  All  through 
the  Bible  it  is  called  a  gift.  If  it  is  a  gift  it  must 
be  without  works — it  must  be  without  money.  It 
would  be  no  gift  at  all  if  you  paid  for  it — if  you  paid 
a  farthing.  It  is  a  gift  from  God.  But  you  can 
spurn  the  gift.  You  can  trample  it  under  your  feet. 
You  can  say,  "I  will  not  have  grace."  Then  you 
must  have  judgment.  If  any  man  will  not  have 
grace  he  must  have  judgment.  If  a  man  will  not 
have  mercy  he  must  have  punishment.  Is  not  that 
the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures?  God  says,  "I 
delight  in  mercy ;  I  want  to  give  you  the  gift  of 
eternal  life."  "The  wages  of  sin  is  death.  "  Man 
has  got  to  take  his  wages  whether  he  wants  to  or  not. 
"The  wages  of  sin  is  death,  but  the  gift  of  God  is 
eternal  life. ' ' 

Now,  the  question  comes,  To  whom  does  He  offer 
this  gift? — to  the  righteous?      He  offers  it  to  the 


GRACE.  493 

world.  He  offers  it  to  sinners;  and  if  a  man  can 
prove  that  he  is  a  sinner  I  can  prove  that  he  has  got 
a  Savior.  If  man  can  prove  he  was  born  into  this 
world  I  can  prove  that  God  has  provided  a  Savior 
for  him.  "God  gave  Him  up,"  says  Paul,  "freely 
for  us  all."  I  like  these  texts  that  have  these 
sweeping  assertions  that  take  us  all  in.  "God  gave 
him  up  for  us  all. "  Christ  did  not  die  for  Paul  any 
more  than  He  did  for  the  rest  of  us.  He  tasted 
death  for  us  all.  "That  is  what  I  believe,"  says  a 
man  down  there,  "and  every  man  will  be  saved." 
Yes,  every  man  that  will  lay  hold  of  the  cross  will 
be  saved.  "If  ye  die  in  your  sins,  where  I  am  ye 
cannot  come.  "  If  a  man  goes  on  sinning,  violating 
the  law  of  God,  trampling  it  under  his  feet,  and 
will  not  take  the  yoke  of  God  upon  him  down  here, 
do  you  think  he  is  going  into  the  kingdom  of  God? 
Do  you  think  he  will  have  any  taste  for  heaven? 

In  the  second  chapter  of  Titus,  eleventh  and 
twelfth  verses,  Paul  says,  "For  the  grace  of  God 
that  bringeth  salvation  hath  appeared  to  all  men. ' '  I 
can  imagine  a  man  says:  "Do  you  think  that  is 
really  true?"  "Yes."  "What!  does  that  mean 
drunkards?"  "Yes,  every  drunkard  in  Cleveland. 
"What!  do  you  mean  all  these  harlots  that  are  walk- 
ing the  streets  to-night?"  "Every  harlot.  The  grace 
of  God  hath  appeared,  bringing  salvation  to  every 
man."  "What!  do  you  mean  gamblers?"  "Yes, 
every  gambler. "  "  And  these  murderers  down  here 
in  prison,  and  some  that  haven't  been  caught?" 
"Yes;  every  murderer.  The  grace  of  God  hath 
appeared,  bringing  salvation  to  all  men."  If  men 
are  lost,  it  is  because  they  spurn  God's  gift.       They 


494  GRACE. 

spurned    His   offer   of  mercy.      It  is  not  that  God 
don't  offer  it.     It  is  as  free  as  the  air  we  breathe. 

I  remember  preaching  upon  the  grace  of  God 
once  in  Chicago,  to  a  fashionable  congregation,  and 
I  was  just  hungering  for  some  souls.  I  was  anxious 
that  the  grace  of  God  might  find  some  one  there, 
and  while  I  was  preaching  I  was  looking  around  to 
see  if  I  could  see  any  one  that  was  anxious  to  be 
saved.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  I  said,  "If  there 
is  any  one  here  that  wants  to  be  saved,  I  will  be  glad 
to  stay  and  talk  with  him. "  It  was  one  of  the  cold- 
est nights  of  the  winter,  and  they  all  got  up  and 
went  out,  and  my  heart  sank  within  me.  I  looked 
all  around  and  did  not  see  any  one  wait.  I  got  my 
overcoat,  and  was  the  last  one  to  leave,  as  I  sup- 
posed; but  as  I  got  to  the  door,  I  saw  a  man  behind 
the  furnace.  He  was  crying  as  if  his  heart  would 
break.  I  sat  down  by  his  side  and  I  said,  "What  is 
the  trouble?"  He  said,  "Well,  you  said  something 
to-night  that  broke  my  heart."  "What  is  it?"  "You 
said  that  the  grace  of  God  was  for  the  likes  of  me." 
I  said,  "That  is  good;  I  am  glad  it  has  reached 
you."  He  thought  he  could  not  be  saved.  But  it 
was  for  the  likes  of  him.  I  talked  with  him,  and 
found  out  what  his  trouble  was.  He  was  just  one 
of  those  poor  tmfortunate  men  that  liquor  had  got 
the  mastery  of,  and,  although  it  was  one  of  the  cold- 
est nights,  he  had  no  coat  on.  He  drank  that  up. 
He  said  that  within  the  past  six  months  he  had 
drank  up  twenty  thousand  dollars.  "And  now," 
said  he,  "my  wife  has  left  me,  and  my  children,  and 
my  own  father  and  mother  have  cast  me  off,  and  I 
expected  to  die  here  in  the  gutter  one  of  these 
nights.     I  expected  this  was  my  last  night. "      He 


GRACE.  497 

said,  "I  didn't  come  in  to  hear  you;  I  came  in  to 
get  warm,  but  my  heart  is  broken.  Do  you  think 
the  grace  of  God  can  save  me — a  poor,  miserable, 
vile  wretch  like  me?"     I  said,  "Yes." 

It  was  refreshing  to  preach  the  gospel  of  the  Son 
of  God  to  that  poor  man.  I  prayed  with  him,  and 
after  I  prayed  with  him,  he  didn't  ask  me  for  any 
money,  but  I  took  him  to  a  place  where  he  was  pro- 
vided for  for  that  night,  and  the  next  morning  I  had  a 
friend  go  to  the  pawnbroker's  to  get  his  coat — got 
his  coat  upon  him,  and  in  a  little  while  he  came  out 
a  decided  Christian;  and  when  Mr.  Sankey  and  my- 
self went  to  Europe,  I  don't  know  a  brighter  light 
in  all  the  Western  States  than  that  young  man. 
The  grace  of  God  found  him.  The  grace  of  God 
saved  him,  and  the  grace  of  God  has  kept  him. 

That  is  what  the  grace  of  God  is  for.  There  is 
not  a  man,  woman  or  child  in  Cleveland  so  far 
gone,  but  the  grace  of  God  can  save  him.  What 
we  want  is,  as  Christians,  to  be  up  and  publishing 
the  tidings  —  proclaiming  the  glorious  gospel  of 
Christ.  It  is  a  gospel  of  glad  tidings.  My  friends, 
make  haste.  Take  the  torch  of  salvation  and  carry 
it  down  into  the  dark  lanes,  and  dark  alleys,  and 
dark  homes,  and  light  them  up  with  the  glorious 
gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  Jesus  is  mighty  to  save. 
"His  name  shall  be  called  Jesus  for  He  shall  save 
His  people  from  their  sins. "  He  is  a  mighty  Savior, 
but  the  world  don't  know  it.  The  world  has  been 
deceived  by  the  devil — has  been  blinded  by  the  god 
of  this  world.  What  we  want  is  to  tell  them  that 
Christ  is  able  to  save,  and  that  He  is  ready  to  save. 

There  is  a  story  told  of  William  Dorset,  that 
Yorkshire  farmer.  He  was  preaching  one  night  in 
28 


498  GRACE. 

London,  and  he  made  the  remark  that  there  was 
not  a  inan  in  all  London  so  far  gone  but  that  the 
grace  of  God  could  save  him.  That  is  a  very  strong 
assertion,  for  there  are  some  pretty  hard  cases  in 
London,  a  city  of  four  million  inhabitants.  You  go 
into  the  east  of  London  and  see  that  awful  pool  of 
iniquity— the  stream  of  death  and  misery  flows  right 
on.  But  he  made  that  statement,  that  there  was 
not  a  man  or  woman  in  all  London  so  far  gone  but 
that  the  grace  of  God  could  save  them.  It  fastened 
in  a  young  lady's  mind.  She  went  home  that  night, 
and  the  next  morning  she  went  to  see  the  York- 
shire farmer.  She  said,  "I  heard  you  preach  last 
night,  and  I  heard  you  say  that*  there  was  not  a 
man  so  far  gone  in  all  London  but  that  the  grace  of 
God  could  save  him."  She  said,  "Did  you  really 
mean  it?"  "Why,"  he  said,  "certainly  I  meant 
it."  "And  do  you  think  that  there  is  not  a  man  in 
all  London  but  that  can  be  saved  if  he  will  be?" 
"Why,  certainly, "  said  Mr.  Dorset,  "not  a  man." 
"Well,"  she  said,  "I  am  a  missionary  and  I  work 
down  in  the  East  End  of  London,  and  I  have 
found  a  man  there  who  says  that  there  is  no  hope 
for  him.  He  is  dying,  and  I  can't  make  him  believe 
that  there  is  any  hope  for  him.  I  wish  you  would 
go  and  see  him. ' '  The  man  of  God  said  he  would 
be  glad  to  go.  She  took  him  down  one  of  those 
narrow  streets  until  they  came  to  an  old  filthy  build- 
ing. She  said,  "I  think,  perhaps,  you  can  manage 
him  better  alone."  It  was  a  five-story  building. 
He  went  up  stairs  to  the  upper  story  and  found  a 
young  man  lying  there  upon  some  straw ;  there  was 
no  bed.  Ah!  the  way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard! 
He  had  got  clear  down  into  great  poverty  and  want, 


GRACE.  499 

and  there  he  was  sick  and  .dying.  Mr.  Dorset  bent 
over  him,  whispered  into  his  ear  and  called  him 
friend.  The  young  man  looked  up  at  him  aston- 
ished. "You  are  mistaken,  sir,  in  the  person.  You 
have  got  in  the  wrong  place."  "How  is  that?" 
asked  Mr.  Dorset.  "Well,  sir,  I  have  no  friend ;  I  am 
friendless."  He  said,  "You  have  a  friend."  Then 
he  told  him  of  the  sinner's  friend.  He  told  him  how 
Christ  loved  him.  The  young  man  shook  his  head, 
"Christ  don't  love  me."  "Why  not?"  "I  have 
sinned  against  Him  all  my  life."  "I  don't  care  if 
you  have.  He  loves  you  still  and  He  wants  to  save 
you."  And  he  preached  Christ  to  him  there.  He 
told  him  of  the*  glorious  grace  of  God.  He  told 
him  that  God  could  save  him,  and  he  read  to  him  out 
of  the  Bible.  The  light  of  the  gospel  began  to  dawn 
upon  that  darkened  mind,  and  the  first  sign  of  a 
new  life  was,  his  heart  went  out  toward  those  whom 
he  had  injured,  and  he  said,  "If  I  could  only  know 
that  my  father  would  forgive  me  I  could  die  in  this 
garret  happy. ' '  He  asked  him  where  his  father 
lived.  He  said,  "In  the  West  End  of  London." 
Mr.  Dorset  said,  "I  will  go  up  and  see  him  and  will 
ask  him  if  he  will  not  forgive  you."  The  young 
man  shook  his  head.  "I  don't  want  you  to  do  that. 
Why,  sir,  my  father  has  disowned  me.  He  has 
disinherited  me.  My  father  has  had  my  name  taken 
off  the  family  record.  He  does  not  own  me  any 
more  as  his  boy.  I  am  as  dead,  sir,  to  him.  If  you 
go  and  talk  to  him  about  me  he  will  get  angry  and 
order  you  out  of  the  house,  and  you  have  been  so 
kind  to  me  I  don't  want  your  feelings  hurt."  Mr. 
Dorset  went  up  to  the  West  End  of  London  to  a 
most  beautiful  place  and  rang  the  bell.     A  servant 


500  GRACE. 

dressed  in  livery  came  to  the  door.  INIr.  Dorset 
inquired  if  his  master  was  in,  and  was  told  that  he 
was.  He  was  taken  into  the  drawing-room,  and 
while  he  was  waiting  there  for  the  man  of  the 
house  to  come  down,  he  looked  around  him. 
There  was  not  a  thing  that  heart  could  desire  that 
had  not  been  laid  out  on  that  beautiful  home.  By 
and  by  the  man  came  into  the  room.  Mr.  Dorset 
got  up  and  went  across  the  room  to  shake  hands 
with  him.  He  said,  "You  have  a  son,  sir,  by  the 
name  of  Joseph,  have  you  not?"  The  father's  hand 
fell  by  his  side.  His  countenance  changed.  Mr. 
Dorset  saw  that  he  had  made  him  very  angry.  He 
said  in  a  great  rage,  "No,  sir.  And  if  you  have 
come  here  to  talk  to  me  about  that  worthless  vaga- 
bond I  want  you  to  leave  my  house,  I  don't  allow 
any  one  to  mention  his  name  in  my  presence.  He 
has  been  dead  to  me  for  years,  and  if  you  have 
been  to  him  you  have  been  deceived.  He  cannot  be 
relied  upon."  He  turned  on  his  heel  to  go  out 
of  the  room,  to  leave  him.  Mr.  Dorset  said,  "Well, 
he  is  your  boy  yet.  He  won't  be  long."  The 
father  turned  again;  "Is  my  Joseph  sick"  "Yes, 
your  boy  is  at  the  point  of  death,  sir.  He  is  dying. 
I  have  not  come  here  to  ask  you  to  take  him  home, 
or  to  ask  you  to  give  him  anything,  sir ;  I  will  see 
that  he  has  a  decent  burial.  All  I  want  is  to  have 
you  tell  me  that  you  forgive  him,  and  let  him  die 
in  peace."  The  great  heart  of  the  father  was 
broken,  and  he  said,  "Forgive  him?  Oh,  I  would" 
have  forgiven  him  long  ago  if  I  had  known  he 
wanted  it.  Forgive  him !  Certainly.  Can  you  take 
me  to  him?"  The  man  of  God  said  he  would  take 
him  to  him,  and  they  ^ot  into  a  carriage  and  were 


GRACE.  601 

soon  on  their  way;  and  when  the  father  reached 
that  garret  he  could  hardly  recognize  his  boy,  all 
mangled  and  bruised  by  the  fall  of  sin.  The  first 
thing  the  boy  said  to  his  father  was,  "Father,  can 
you  forgive  me?  Will  you  forgive  me?"  "Oh, 
Joseph,  I  would  have  forgiven  you  long  ago  if  I 
had  known  you  wanted  it. "  He  met  him  in  grace 
right  there.  The  father  said,  "Let  my  servant 
take  you  in  the  carriage  and  take  you  home.  I 
cannot  let  you  die  in  this  fearful  place."  "No, 
father,  I  am  not  well  enough  to  be  moved.  I  shall 
die  soon,  but  I  can  die  happy  now  that  I  know  you 
have  forgiven  me;  for  I  believe  that  God,  for 
Christ's  sake  has  forgiven  me."  And  in  a  little 
while,  with  his  head  on  the  bosom  of  his  father, 
Joseph  breathed  his  last,  and  passed  back  to  his 
God. 

Yes,  my  friends,  that  father  was  willing  to  for- 
give him  when  he  knew  that  the  boy  wanted  grace. 
Now  God  knows  all  your  hearts,  and  if  you  want 
grace  to-day  the  God  of  all  grace  will  meet  you. 
He  will  meet  you  in  mercy.  He  will  meet  you 
in  pity.  He  will  bless  you  to-day.  He  wants  to 
bless  you.  Sin  ruins,  sin  casts  down,  but  the  grace 
of  God  lifts  up.  O,  may  the  grace  of  God  lift  you 
up  to-day  out  of  the  pit  and  place  your  feet  on  the 
Rock  of  Ages. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


COME. 


I  want  this  audience  to-night,  while  I  am  speak- 
ing, to  pray.  I  would  like  to  ask  you  friends  that 
are  not  Christians  to  pray.  I  would  like  to  give 
you  a  little  prayer,  and  I  would  like  to  ask  you  to 
make  it  all  the  time  I  am  speaking:  "Lord,  if 
these  things  are  so,  show  them  to  me."  I  don't 
want  you  to  believe  one  solitary  word  I  say  that  is 
not  from  God.  If  it  is  not  true,  I  don't  want  you 
to  believe  it.  But  if  it  is,  you  certainly  ought  to  be 
honest  enough  to  want  to  know  it.  That  is  per- 
fectly fair.  No  skeptic,  no  infidel,  no  deist,  no  athe- 
ist really  can  object  to  making  that  prayer;  but  if 
there  is  an  atheist  here,  let  him  make  this  prayer: 
"If  there  be  a  God,  let  Him  show  these  things  to 
me,  if  they  are  true."  Let  us  be  willing  to-night 
to  let  the  God  that  created  us  teach  us. 

Now,  the  text  I  want  to  call  your  attention 
to  is  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Genesis,  the  first 
verse.  It  is  a  truth  that  a  great  many  of  you,  per- 
haps, don't  believe.  A  great  many  people  have  the 
idea  that  no  such  thing  ever  took  place.  But  if  you 
make  that  prayer  we  will  find  out.  "If  it  is  true, 
Lord,  show  it  to  me.      Rever  1  it  to  me. " 

"And  the  Lord  said  unto  Noah,  Come  thou  and 
all  thy  house  into  the   ark."     That   word  "come" 

502 


COME.  608 

occurs  all  through  the  Bible.  It  begins  in  the  first 
book  of  the  Bible  and  runs  clear  through  Revelation. 
The  prophets  took  it  up  and  their  cry  was,  "Come, 
come," 

When  that  blessed  Master  came,  He  took  up  that 
same  cry,  "Come  imto  Me  all  ye  that  labor."  V/hen 
the  apostles  commenced  to  work  after  Christ  left 
the  earth,  they  kept  ringing  out  that  word  "Come. " 
We  find  it  in  the  last  chapter  of  Revelation. 

The  first  time  it  occurs  in  the  Bible  is  in  this  text 
I  have  to-night.  God  Almighty  was  the  preacher, 
and  He  was  calling  Noah  in  out  of  the  coming 
storm,  out  of  the  coming  judgment  that  was  coming 
upon  the  earth.  One  hundred  and  twenty  years 
before  that  Noah  had  received  the  most  awful  com- 
munication that  ever  came  from  heaven  to  earth. 
God  told  him  that  He  was  going  to  destroy  the  earth 
on  account  of  sin.  Sin  sprang  into  this  world  full 
grown.  The  first  man  born  of  woman  was  a  mur- 
derer. I  suppose  that  we,  at  this  age,  know  noth- 
ing about  the  sins  of  the  antediluvians.  Men  had 
time  then  to  carry  out  their  plans,  and  their  iniqui- 
ties, and  their  sins.  They  lived  a  thousand  years, 
nearly.  I  don't  know  what  would  happen  now  if 
men  should  live  so  long  in  sin.  It  says  in  the  sixth 
chapter  of  Genesis  and  the  fifth  verse,  "And  God 
saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  in  the 
earth,  and  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his 
heart  was  only  evil  continually. ' '  The  wickedness  of 
earth  had  come  up  to  God.  God  purposed  that  He 
would  destroy  the  earth.  But  He  gave  them  one 
hundred  and  twenty  long  years'  grace— one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  long  years  to  repent;  and  if 
they  had  repented  like  Nineveh,  God  might  have 


504  COME. 

spared  the  Old  World,  and  might  have  spared  those 
antediluvians.  But  I  can  imagine  they  talked  very- 
much  as  men  talk  now,  and  when  Noah  brought 
them  that  message  they  mocked  him ;  they  laughed 
at  the  idea;  they  scoffed  at  the  idea.  "God  going 
to  destroy  this  world!  You  don't  suppose  we  are 
fools  enough  to  believe  that,  do  you?  God  going  to 
destroy  His  own  world!  God  going  against  the  law 
of  nature!  Why,  it  is  against  our  reason!  It  is 
against  our  intellect!  We  don't  see  any  reason  for 
it.  God  going  to  destroy  the  world?  Away  with 
such  a  God  as  that!  We  won't  have  anything  to  do 
with  a  God  of  judgment — a  God  who  is  going  to 
judge  this  world  on  account  of  sin." 

Then  there  was  another  class  of  people,  undoubt- 
edly, that  were  atheists,  that  took  the  ground  that 
the  world  came  by  chance,  that  there  was  no  God, 
and  that  Noah  was  a  fanatic.  Some  of  them,  per- 
haps, went  so  far  as  to  think  he  was  out  of  his  mind. 
If  they  had  had  insane  hospitals  in  those  days  they 
would  have  tried  to  get  him  into  one  of  them. 
"Poor,  deceived,  deluded  man!  God  going  to  de- 
stroy the  world !  God  going  to  drown  all  in  it — our 
great  men,  our  mighty  men,  our  kings,  our  princes, 
our  rulers,  our  governors,  and  our  wise  men !  Away 
with  such  a  doctrine!  We  don't  believe  it." 

Noah  and  his  family  stood  alone  on  that  dark  day. 
There  was  not  a  man  to  stand  with  him,  and  God 
told  him  to  build  an  ark,  and  the  God  of  heaven  was 
the  architect.  He  told  him  how  to  build  it,  and  I 
will  venture  to  say  that  every  dollar's  worth  of  ma- 
terial that  went  into  that  ark  came  out  of  Noah's 
property.  He  could  not  get  a  man  to  help  him. 
When  you  built  this  church  you  got  every  man  you 


COME.  505 

could  to  help  you  build  it.  But  there  was  not  a  man 
that  would  help  Noah  build  that  ark.  He  had  to 
pay  the  expenses  alone.  They  laughed  at  the  idea. 
They  mocked  at  the  idea.  They  ridiculed  the  idea. 
Why,  the  strongest  thing  against  you,  Noah,  is  that 
no  one  believes  with  you ;  the  great  men  and  all  the 
leading  minds  of  the  present  day  differ  with  j'ou. 
They  don't  believe  there  is  going  to  be  a  flood — 
that  there  is  going  to  be  a  deluge  and  a  judgment ; 
there  are  no  signs  in  the  heavens.  The  astronomers 
look  up  in  the  heavens  and  they  say,  "We  see  no 
sign  of  a  coming  storm  or  a  coming  judgment.  It 
is  all  a  delusion,  God  is  not  going  to  destroy  the 
world.  I  don't  believe  it.  And  then  we  have  a 
majority  with  us.  They  all  go  with  us,  and  you 
stand  alone. ' '  But  the  old  man  toiled  on.  Day  after 
day  you  can  see  him  there  at  that  ark.  He  must 
have  known  when  he  received  the  commission  to 
build  the  ark,  how  much  sport  they  would  make  of 
it  —how  he  would  become  the  butt  of  ridicule,  how- 
he  would  become  the  song  of  the  drunkard  and  how 
he  would  become  the  laughing  stock  of  that  day. 
If  they  had  the  theaters  in  those  days  I  have  not 
any  doubt  but  that  they  would  have  Noah's  Ark  on 
the  stage  and  make  all  manner  of  sport  of  it.  Lec- 
turers went  up  and  down  the  country  warning  these 
antediluvians  against  fanaticism,  and  to  be  careful 
about  being  carried  away  with  that  delusion.  If 
they  had  newspapers  in  those  days  once  in  a  while 
there  would  have  been  a  reporter  coming  around  to 
see  how  he  was  getting  along,  and  he  would  write 
up  an  article  on  "Noah's  Delusion,"  or  "Noah's 
Ark.  "  If  they  had  the  telegraph  in  those  days  every 
once  in  a  while  there  would  have  been  a  telegraphic 


506  COME. 

dispatch  sent  around  the  world  about  Noah's  Ark 
and  about  the  deluded  man  spending  all  his  money 
and  all  his  time  upon  that  ark.  And  then  there  was 
that  gray-haired  old  man  and  his  family,  his  three 
sons  and  their  wives,  only  eight  in  all,  and  yet  he 
is  building  an  ark  large  enough  to  accommodate 
hundreds  and  thousands!  Deluded  man!  Gone 
clean  mad !  Some  one  has  suggested  the  idea  that 
Noah  must  have  been  deaf  or  he  could  not  have 
withstood  the  scoffs  and  the  jeers  of  that  day.  But 
if  he  was  he  had  an  ear  to  hear  God.  He  communed 
with  God,  and  when  God  spoke  to  him,  he  could 
hear  and  he  obej^ed.  Well,  a  hundred  years  passes 
away.  There  is  no  sign  of  a  coming  storm,  and 
these  men  are  increasing  in  their  infidelity  and  in 
their  unbelief.  They  go  on,  scoffing  and  mocking 
and  ridiculing.  And  the  men  that  helped  Noah,  his 
carpenters  there  whom  he  hired,  undoubtedly  if 
they  went  into  a  saloon  and  began  to  drink  or  play 
cards,  men  would  make  fun  of  them.  "Ah,  you 
are  helping  that-old  lunatic  there  to  make  the  ark.  " 
But  I  can  imagine  they  would  say,  "Noah's  money 
is  as  good  as  any.  We  don't  believe  in  his  old  ark; 
we  don't  believe  in  the  delusion,  but  we  are  after 
his  money,  that  is  all." 

There  are  a  good  many  men  to-day  that  talk  in 
the  same  way  about  the  ark  that  God  has  provided. 
The  day  of  scoffing  is  not  passed.  The  day  of 
mocking,  and  the  day  of  ridiciile  is  not  passed. 
Many  a  man  is  kept  out  of  the  kingdom  of  God  be- 
cause he  cannot  stand  the  ridicule  of  some  scoffing, 
sneering,  contemptible  wretch,  who  would  trample 
his  mother's  prayers,  and  feelings,  and  her  Bible, 


COME.  507 

and  all  of  her  precepts  under  his  feet,  and  mock  at 
the  idea  of  his  mother's  God. 

Time  passes  on.  The  hundred  and 'twenty  years 
have  expired.  The  merriment  increases.  Noah 
hag  got  his  ark  done.  All  the  contracts  are  closed. 
During  the  past  hundred  and  twenty  years  many  a 
time  has  he  stopped  the  work,  perhaps,  on  the  ark 
and  gone  out  and  warned  his  countrymen.  He  told 
them  of  the  coming  judgment.  But  they  mocked 
the  old  man.  They  didn't  believe  him.  But  now 
the  ark  is  finished.  I  don't  know  what  time  of  the 
year  it  was  finished;  perhaps  it  was  in  the  spring. 
In  that  spring  Noah  did  not  plant  anything. 

"Now,  surely,  he  will  come  to  want.  Every  year 
he  has  planted ;  like  others  he  has  provided  for  the 
future,  but  now  he  has  not  planted  anything.  He 
is  preparing  to  go  into  that  ark.  He  says  that  this 
is  the  last  year.  The  world  is  going  to  be  destroyed. 
What  an  absurdity."  When  we  talk  now  about 
God's  burning  up  this  world  men  scoff  at  the  idea, 
"God  desti-oy  the  world!  He  is  not  going  to  do  any- 
thing of  the  kind.  The  world  is  improving,  grow- 
ing better  all  the  while.  What  is  God  going  to  de- 
stroy the  world  for  if  the  world  is  growing  better, 
and  if  men  are  getting  on  so  well,  accumulating 
wealth  and  great  fortunes.  Away  with  such  a  delu- 
sion !  God  is  not  going  to  burn  up  the  world.  There 
is  no  God  of  judgment.  God  is  not  going  to  judge 
the  world  for  sin.  To  be  sure,  they  put  His  Son  to 
death.  But  then  he  just  winked  at  that.  He  is  not 
goino-  to  hold  them  responsible  for  that.  It  is  all  a 
delusion."  That  is  the  talk  of  the  world  to-day. 
That  is  the  cry. 

I  can  imagine  when  the  last  year  expired— the  one 


508  COME. 

hundred  and  twenty  years  were  up,  and  the  day  of 
grace  was  closing,  those  men  just  increased  in  their 
scoffing  and  their  infidelity. 

Noah  at  last  moves  into  the  ark.  That  was  just 
the  climax  of  the  whole  thing.  A  most  absurd 
thing.  Why  didn't  he  wait  until  the  storm  began? 
There  was  time  enough  to  move;  then  to  build  an 
ark  on  dry  land,  as  if  the  storm  was  going  to  get  up 
there ;  and  if  it  did,  do  you  think  that  thing  would 
float?  They  made  all  manner  of  sport  of  it,  and 
ridiculed  it.  Visitors  came  to  look  at  it.  You  can 
see  them  looking  around ;  going  up  into  the  different 
sories  of  it.  If  they  saw  Noah  around,  they  would 
say,  "That's  him,  that's  him  there!"  They  would 
just  point  the  finger  of  scorn  at  him,  "deluded 
man!"  The  business  men  of  that  day  undoubtedly 
said  that  ark  was  not  worth  as  much  when  J^oah 
got  it  done  as  the  nails  they  put  into  it.  If  it  was 
put  up  at  auction  it  would  not  bring  any  more  than 
what  it  was  worth  for  kindling  wood.  It  was  not 
good  for  a  house  to  live  in,  and  you  could  not  make 
a  barn  of  it.  Yet  that  man  had  put  all  his  wealth, 
probably,  in  that  ark.  For  years  he  had  gathered 
up  all  he  had  and  put  it  in  that  ark.  The  world 
looked  upon  it  with  scorn  and  contempt,  but  God 
called  him  in,  "Come,  thou  and  all  thy  house,  into 
the  ark. ' '  And,  thank  God,  his  children  went  in 
with  him.  Noah  lived  so  that  his  children  had  con- 
fidence in  his  piety.  I  have  great  admiration  for 
Noah.  If  a  man  could  live  in  that  dark  day,  with 
those  scoffers  and  unbelievers  all  about  him,  and 
command  his  children  so  that  they  followed  him, 
he  must  have  lived  right  at  home.  He  must  have 
been  a  true  man,  and  he  must  have  walked  with 


COME.  509 

God  Almighty.  And  after  they  had  gone  in,  God 
gave  the  earth  seven  days  more  of  grace.  He  added 
seven  days  to  the  hundred  and  twenty  years.  Un- 
doubtedly he  gave  them  that  time  to  repent.  If  they 
had  repented  then  they  might  have  been  saved. 
But  they  did  not  repent.  They  mocked  at  the  idea, 
and  they  said  to  Noah  when  he  told  them  that  he 
had  built  that  ark  so  large  that  he  might  preserve 
his  seed  upon  the  earth,  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and 
animal  creation,  they  mocked  at  the  idea.  "How 
are  you  going  to  get  the  wild  fowls  and  beasts  of 
the  desert  into  that  ark?  How  are  you  going  to 
get  the  wild  animals  from  their  caves  and  dens 
into  that  ark?"  And  they  went  on  mocking  at  the 
idea.     It  was  a  most  absurd  idea. 

I  can  imagine  that  the  first  thing  that  alarmed 
and  aroused  them  was  one  morning  to  their  surprise 
they  saw  the  heavens  black  with  the  fowls  of  the 
air,  coming  from  the  corners  of  the  earth,  two  by 
two,  mated  by  God,  and  as  they  came  to  that  ark, 
Noah  took  them  in.  And  the  animals  came  in  from 
their  dens  and  caves,  from  the  corners  of  the  earth, 
and  they  came  up  to  the  ark,  two  by  two.  The  lion 
and  the  lamb  passed  in  side  by  side,  and  as  they 
looked  down  at  the  earth,  they  could  see  little  in- 
sects creeping  up  towards  that  ark  two  by  two,  as  if 
pushed  up  by  some  unseen  hand,  and  they  cried  out, 
"Merciful  God,  what  does  this  mean?"  They  are 
alarmed  now.  That  was  the  first  thing,  probably, 
that  woke  them  up.  Would  to  God  they  had  re- 
pented then,  and  cried  for  mercy.  But  undoubtedly 
their  wise  men  said,  "We  don't  exactly  understand 
it,  but  there  is  no  danger.  Our  astronomers  tell  us 
there  is  no  sign  in  the  heavens;  the  old  sun  shines 


510  '  COME. 

as  it  did  two  thousand  years  ago,  and  the  stars  shine 
at  night  as  bright  as  ever;  the  lambs  are  skipping 
on  the  hill  sides  as  usual,  the  cattle  are  grazing  on 
a  thousand  hills ;  business  was  never  more  prosper- 
ous. The  world  never  looked  more  promising. 
There  is  no  sign  of  a  coming  storm.  We  don't  un- 
derstand this  strange  thing;  we  admit  we  can't  un- 
derstand it,  but  then  there  is  no  sign;  be  quiet."  If 
some  one  was  alarmed  they  would  say,  ' '  He  is  weak- 
minded. "  That  is  what  young  men  say  of  their 
mothers  now ;  that  they  are  weak-minded  women, 
deluded,  carried  av/ay.  Religion  may  be  a  good 
thing  for  women  and  weak-minded  people.  O,  may 
God  forgive  the  young  man  that  speaks  of  his 
mother  in  that  way. 

It  may  be  the  next  thing  that  took  place  God  shut 
the  door.  Noah  did  not.  shut  it.  The  Almighty 
shut  the  door.  The  last  year  had  come,  the  last 
month,  the  last  week,  the  last  day,  the  last  hour, 
the  last  minuute  had  come.  When  God  shut  the 
door  the  day  of  grace  was  over ;  the  day  of  mercy 
was  ended.  When  once  the  master  of  the  house  is 
risen  up  and  shut  the  door,  there  is  no  hope.  You 
may  cry  for  mercy  then,  but  it  is  too  late.  A  man 
said  that  when  he  died  he  would  go  to  heaven  and 
he  would  knock  and  ask  for  Mercy,  and  Mercy  would 
let  him  in.  A  man  said  you  need  not  ask  for  Mercy 
there ;  for  Mercy  has  not  been  at  home  for  eighteeen 
hundred  years.  Mercy  is  abroad  in  the  earth.  It 
is  too  late  to  ask  for  mercy."  This  is  the  day  of 
mercy.  This  is  the  day  of  grace.  This  is  the  ac- 
ceptable time  of  the  Lord.  This  is  the  day  the  door 
is  wide  open.     God  says,  "Come  in.  "  God  calls  you 


COME.  511 

in  out  of  the  coming-  storm  and  out  of  the  cominy 
judgment. 

I  can  imagine  some  of  you  say,  "Moody,  you  don't 
believe  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a  flood,  and  God 
shut  that  door?"  I  believe  it  just  as  much  as  I  be- 
lieve that  Jesus  Christ  came  into  this  world.  Listen 
to  what  the  Son  of  God  has  to  say:  "As  it  was  in 
the  days  of  Noah,  so  shall  it  be  in  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  Man;  they  were  eating  and  drinking  and 
marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  until  the  flood 
came  and  took  them  all  away. "  It  came  Suddenly. 
Jesus  Christ  believed  in  the  flood.  But  when  once 
the  Master  of  the  house  had  risen  up  and  shut  the 
door,  it  was  too  late. 

Men  say,  "lean  repent  any  time."  Do  not  de- 
ceive yourself.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  man  sin- 
ning away  the  day  of  grace.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  man  going  on  rejecting  and  rejecting  the  Spirit 
of  God  until  the  last  hour  and  the  last  moment  has 
come,  and  it  is  too  late. 

Those  antediluvians  found  it  was  too  late.  The 
door  was  shut.  I  don't  know  when  the  storm  broke 
upon  them.  It  might  have  been  in  the  night.  And 
what  a  night  it  was!  Did  this  world  ever  witness 
such  a  night  as  that? 

I  can  imagine  as  the  sun  went  down,  little  did 
they  think  it  was  the  last  time  they  were  to  look 
upon  it,  as  it  shone  upon  that  ark  and  the  door  was 
closed.  The  day  of  grace  was  ended.  The  day  of 
mercy  was  over,  and  there  was  no  hope.  Their  doom 
was  sealed.  The  door  that  shut  Noah  and  his  family 
in  shut  them  out.  That  night,  perhaps  at  midnight, 
they  could  hear  in  the  distance  the  thunder.  The 
sound   grew  louder   and   louder,    until    the    stoim 


512  COME. 

broke  upon  them.  Perhaps  the  scoffers  and  the 
triflers  in  those  days  began  to  mock  and  say,  "Well, 
now  Noah  will  say  this  is  his  flood.  Noah,  now  in 
the  ark,  will  begin  to  rejoice  and  say  this  is  what  he 
was  telling  us  about. ' '  But  by-and-by  their  mock- 
ing was  all  gone.  There  could  not  be  a  scoffer 
found.  And  do  you  know  there  is  a  time  coming 
when  there  cannot  be  a  scoffer  found  on  the  face  of 
the  earth?  There  is  a  time  coming  when  these  men 
that  are  mocking  at  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  will 
bow  the  knee  to  the  Lord  Jesus.  They  will  cr)'' — 
we  have  the  prayer[on  record — "They  will  call  upon 
the  mountains  and  the  rocks  and  the  hills  to  cover 
them  from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb. ' '  Their  cry  for 
mercy  will  be  too  late. 


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